The Birthday
by animebookworm44
Summary: EdxWinry. May contain spoilers...They were always careful. Ed's hand would always be pumping alchemic power into the suit of armor, while the actual Alphonse would deftly hide throughout Central...
1. Chapter 1

Ha! A new FMA fic. I've been thinking about this one for a while now too.

This one will be a chapter story, and I would very much love it if readers will REVIEW. I'll update as often as I can, though I can't promise much. Being in 10th grade is hard enough, not to mention that term is coming to an end, and I will have all new classes by the end of January!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Full Metal Alchemist

Pairings:

Edx Winry

Royx Riza (not so much as the EdWin, but still there!)

**Also: PLEASE CHECK OUT MY PROFILE FOR SOME QUESTIONS I'D LIKE ANSWERS TO**... but while you're there, you could read some of my other stories -.

Off we go!

* * *

**The Birthday

* * *

**

They were always careful.

Ed's hand would always be pumping alchemic power into the suit of armor, while the actual Alphonse would deftly hide throughout Central, sometimes even venturing onto military ground without any of the officers knowing.

Edwards hand always rested on the suit of armor as of late, and they were always together.

But in the opinion of the military officers, Alphonse had grown exceptionally quiet. He also took quite well now to staring into space.

But they didn't know.

What they thought they knew was that the Elric brothers' latest attempt at a Philospher's Stone had gone down the tubes... in a bad way.

What they didn't know, yet what was the truth, was that the attempt was entirely sucessful. Alphonse had lost his memory of being in a suit of armor, but quick pictures and a synopsis restored his memory quickly.

No one noticed that the suit of armor Alphonse had grown completely silent (this was thought to be the younger brother's brooding over their failure) and that Ed's automail foot no longer clanked on the tiled halls of the military base. Edward always kept the long shirt on, lest anyone figure out that he was completely flesh once again.

Their precautions weren't just trying to keep a secret. They had managed to outsmart the homunculi, but were sure the fake humans had their suspicions and would be coming to find the Stone, which was in a safe place, with only Edward's knowledge as to where it was hiding. But Edward kept up as if eerything was normal, seeming to outsmart the Frist Lieutennant with her sharp eyes, and even Mustang himself, who proclaimed to know everything.

Edward hoped these securities would be enough to keep the military out of any trouble that might befall him, so that if they were captured they could honestly say that they didn't know that the Elric brothers had made a successful Philosopher's Stone.

But Edward was surprised even when he'd left the empty suit of armor for a minute in his dorm room, and came back to find half of the office stuffing a cat under Al's nose. He'd promptly yelled at them to get out, but even they knew that something was wrong after that.

Edward then planned for a vacation, confirming with Mustang that a trip home might do "Alphonse" some good, and bring him back to his usual perky, cat-loving self.

And of course, Mustang sent along military backup.

Armstrong now sat across from Edward in the train car. Al's head was swiveled to face out the window, the real Alphonse occupied the seat behind Armstrong, their backs facing each other.

"Edward," Armstrong said, his deep voice startling Edward from his thoughts while the slow rock of the train dulled his senses.

"Yeah?" Ed replied not ever one for talking.

"What happened? With you and Alphonse," he asked.

Ed started to sweat. He hadn't thought that anyone would really ask him what happened.

Behind Armstrong, Al jumped. He drew a transmutation circle up against the wall and pulled some slate for a chalkboard.

'Are you going to tell him?' the sign read, as the ten year old held it above his seat for Ed to see.

"Uh- Excuse me for a minute, Major," Ed said, promptly getting up. He motioned for Al to follow him as he passed the boy's compartment. Alphonse quickkly followed.

"Are you going to tell him?" Alphonse asked his brother, when they were a safe hearing distance away.

"Why should I?"

"Come on, Brother. We may need his help protecting Granny and Winry if the homunculi show up in Resembool,"

"How can we be sure they will? What if they capture Armstrong and hold him too, pressuring him to say it,"

"It would work the same for Granny and Winry. You can't think they won't notice when the suit of armor shows up with no signs of life. Especially Granny, she knows everything! If you're going to tell Winry and Pinako, then I think we should tell the Major too. He could be helpful, and cover us up at HQ, too,"

Edward sighed. "Fine," he said.

They stood, walking back to the car, where they found Armstrong trying to talk to an unresponding suit of armor.

"Er- Major?" Edward asked.

"Edward, Alphonse is being unusually quiet- Oh. Who are you, young fellow!" Armstrong asked, pink sparkly things seeming to come from nowhere in his delight at meeting the new boy.

"Major, I'd like you to meet..." Ed paused.

"Alphonse, Alphonse Elric," Al stepped forward, extending a hand.

The sparkles crashed to the floor, the Major looked stunned. He tentatively shook the boy's hand. He recognised the voice, but it sounded clearer now, not as hollow.

Ed quickly kicked the fake suit of armor next to him, its pieces scattering across the floor to make room for Al to sit.

"Brother," Alphonse said. "Don't kick it! I still have emotional attachments!"

Ed rolled his eyes. "Stop it, Al. We owe the Major an explanation,"

Armstrong nodded, "Yes, I believe you do,"

"And that explanation," Ed continued, "Would be simply that the attempt we made on the Philosopher's stone was a success, rather than a failure as we told everyone. You are the first person to see him back, Major,"

"An honor," Armstrong said. The pink sparkles rose again, "This will go down in Armstrong family history!"

The brothers shared a look while the Major still was squealing over the honor.

"We wouldn't be telling you if your help wasn't needed. The plan was, actually, not to tell anyone. It would protect them, and the stone, from the homunculi," Edward glanced at Alphonse. "And then the office got suspicious as to why this hunk of junk here was being so silent. We needed a way to get out of that: a trip home to Resembool. Unfortunately, that would mean telling Winry and Pinako, and also whoever was accompanying us, so that we could secure the safety of both Granny and Winry,"

"I understand, Edward," the Major said. "I also would like to applaud your decieving skills, not one person knew about it," The Major smiled.

"Brother, we're here," Alphonse said, pointing excitedly out the window to see the Resembool station.

Edward sighed again, starting to pick up the fallen pieces of armor, and packing them into a bag. Armstrong took the bag from him, and slung it over his shoulder. Ed smiled gratefully. He picked up his and Al's bags, and left the train.

* * *

Edward slowed upon nearing the house. He had tried going over in his mind how to break the news to Winry, both about his new flesh arm, and about his automail disappearing in the transmutation. He even expected to get hit with the wrench more than once in the course of the explanation.

But there was a bright side to this. Now that their quest for the stone was over, he could let down his walls a little and let her in a little more. His body was a litttle apprehensive about doing this, it had made those walls nice and strong, strong enough even to be able to withstand Winry's crying, and he wasn't so sure about leaving a piece behind. The homunculi, after all, were still out there, and if Winry was caught he'd never forgive himself.

Erm- not just Winry! Pinako too!

He was so caught up that he didn't notice Armstrong and Alphonse had stopped a while back, waitiing for him to go first; and that his feet had taken him straight to the the front of the house.

He sighed as he reached up his right hand to knock.

He tapped three times, and stood patiently waiting for the door to open.

The door opened to a smiling Winry, ready to greet an automail customer. The smile disappeared when she saw Ed.

Ed flinched, waiting for the first hit of the wrench. Instead, he heard a soft sob and seconds later her arms were around his neck, her face buried lightly in his chest.

Now it was her turn to wait patiently, painstakingly, for him to place an arm around her. When they hugged, which wasn't very often, he always held her with one arm, his flesh one, and with very light pressure, almost as if she might break with the weight of his sins.

She was caught off-guard, however, when both of his arms snaked around her back, and he held her tighter than he ever had. Granted, it was still rather light compared to the way she'd glomped him, but it was an improvement.

As they stood there, comfortable in each other's arms, the two bystanders looked upon the scene.

"Ah, true love! What a beautiful thing!" Armstrong said, pink sparkles making a return in all their glory.

Alphonse sweatdropped, and instead of commenting, he asked, "Who is brother hugging? I know this is Winry's house, but I've never seen her before,"

The sparkles fell, and Armstrong turned to look at Al. "Well, that's Winry right there, see?"

Alphonse swiveled to get a look at the blonde Edward was holding and his eyes bugged in recognition.

Winry sniffed and pushed Ed lightly, making him pull away. She looked on him with confused, tear-filled eyes. Instead of saying anything, he brought Winry's ear close to his head and whispered, "You're the absolute first to see this. I haven't even showed Al,"

Then, he stripped himself of his jacket, his left arm first, and then his right. Winry gasped.

"Edward, your arm..." she said. He held it out to her.

She gently felt the arm, poking and prodding along, still not believing that it was flesh. After all these years. When she threw her arms around his neck again, he was ready and held her back lightly. A knee started to prod his leg, making sure that it too wa flesh.

"Brother?" a small voice peeped.

Ed and Winry broke apart to Armstrong crying tears of passion, and Alphonse staring up with a confused face.

"Oh my god, Alphonse," Winry said.

"Winry?" he asked, looking upon her 16-year-old form. Ages had been kind to her.

She ran down the stairs to her house and quickly enveloped him in a hug. He was rather tall for a ten year old, and it was at this point that Winry noticed the gap in hers and Edward's height. He'd gotten taller, and she'd stopped growing a long time ago.

"Ah! The reunion of old friends! The bond!" the sparkles brightened.

"Winry?" asked an old voice. "Where are you, girl! Was it a customer or not!"

Pinako Rockbell came through the door, not ever expecting to see Edward Elric, not to mention Armstrong, and especially not Alphonse.

"My, my," was her response to this event. "What a surprise,"

"Granny Pinako," Edward greeted.

"Aunty!" Alphonse cheered, running out of Winry's arms to hug the old woman.

"Alphonse," Pinako greeted as the boy hugged her. "I certainly didn't expect you to be here, kid,"

"Brother made the Stone!" Al said excitedly. Edward turned away slightly from the attention.

"Is this true, Edward?" Pinako asked.

"...Yeah, so what?" Edward asked.

"Nothing, nothing at all... but what are you going to do with it?" she questioned, always the one for thinking ahead.

"I don't know yet," he said.

"Is it with you?"

"No,"

"Who knows about it?" Pinako asked, being quite thorough.

"You, Win, and Armstrong,"

Pinako paused for a moment. "It seems you were more thorough than I thought you would be," she said, smiling.

Ed smiled back.

Pinako turned to Winry. "Well, since these boys are no longer customers, I need you to go to town and get a few things, Winry,"

Edward's mind immediately went into a panic. '_What if she's attacked while out there alone? Should Armstrong go with her? No, we'd need him to protect both Pinako and Alphonse... That leaves... me,_'

"Sure, granny," she said, taking the list from her grandmother's hands.

"I'll go with you," Ed said, smiling though Al and Armstrong looked at him suspiciously.

"Alright, Ed. If you want to," she said, turning to leave. Ed ran down the stairs to catch up with her.

"See ya later!" he called back to Al and the Major.

They looked after him, Alphonse wondering slyly if brother might tell Winry his feelings, and Armstrong wondering the same, with a bit of worry for their safety added on.

* * *

Winry would never turn down shopping with Ed.

He had a lot of money, and would buy whatever she asked.

What's wrong with that?

"Ah! Ed! Look!" she shouted, pointing fervishly at...

"A screwdriver?" Ed asked.

"Edward! It's not just any screwdriver! It's-"

"How much?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"Just a teensy-weensy little-"

"Here," he handed her a wad of cash.

"Edward! Thank you!" she said, hurrying off to buy the tool.

He had taken Pinako's list from Winry, and looked at the first few items. They were all groceries, and so he headed to the market.

* * *

"Winry!" came a shout.

The blonde had just finished paying the cashier at the store for her screwdriver. "Huh? Oh hi, Marissa!"

"I knew if you were anywhere, you'd be here," Marissa replied, running to her friend.

"So, what's up?"

"Look! I just saw this really cute blonde kid going into the market store! Eep! He was gorgeous! Do you know who he is?"

"Well it would be kind of hard to know, seeing as I wasn't the one who saw him," Winry said. "Plus the only thing you told me about him was his hair color,"

"Well he's... oh gosh! I just don't know how to desribe him- he's indescribable except to say that he's drop-dead gorgeous, and that I've never seen him before. Do you think he's new?"

"Could be," she said, picking up her bag with the screwdriver. She could tell Marissa was really going over the top for this guy. "Now, what did granny want me to get?" she asked, reaching into her pocket for the list. Not finding it, she surmised that Ed had it, and was doing the shopping for her.

"Are you busy?" Marissa asked.

"Well- kinda-"

"Because my mother wanted you to come over to fix something,"

And Winry, unable to resist machinery, said yes.

* * *

Edward lugged the shopping bags around town, looking for Winry. Along with the groceries, he had to go to the hardware store, and the things he was carrying from there weren't very light.

He grumpily left town, sitting on a bench near the park, and sulked. For some reason, he doubted Winry was in danger. So he slumped against the bench, waiting for her to come out of town.

Although, she may have already gone back.

'_No, she wouldn't do that. Not without all those groceries and stuff Pinako sent her to get. Not that she knew what any of them were. So she's either with someone in town, or out looking for me. Oh well,_' he reasoned, slumping on the bench more.

The sun started to disappear beyond the horizon, and the colors it emanated made everything appear yellow. Edward yawned.

Some giggling behind him caused him to look over. It was Winry and some other girl. They were sitting by the park fountain, talking and laughing.

Ed sighed and stood.

* * *

"Oh my goodness, he really said that?" Winry laughed.

"I know! I couldn't believe it either when I heard it. But he said it!" their laughing died down somewhat, both regaining their breath by breathing hard.

Suddenly, Marissa grabbed Winry's arm. "Oh god," she said. "Winry, don't look now, but it's that guy I was telling you about earlier. He's heading this way. And he's looking at you!" she said excitedly.

Winry rolled her eyes. Marissa could get out of hand sometimes.

"I'lll take this," said a voice behind her, and a hand grabbed the bag with the screwdriver.

"Hey!" Winry and Marissa protested.

Winry whipped around, wrench at the ready and froze when she recognized Edward.

"Ed," she whispered.

He took the bag from her grasp and turned, walking back to the groceries. "Don't be too late getting back," he said over his shoulder. "Pinako would get mad,"

Marissa stared at the weird conversation. When she was over this, and Edward had walked a good distance away, it hit her.

"Winry! You know that kid!" she shouted.

"Yeah, it's Edward Elric. Y'know, the kid we went to school with. He's staying at my house,"

"Oh right, your old best friend... I can't believe you!"

"What!"

"You have that gorgeous guy living in your house and haven't made a move on him! Winry you are an insult to the female race!"

"He's my best friend Marissa! Don't you think that would be a little awkward!"

"Ah, so you _do_ like him,"

"What! How did you know that!"

"You didn't just outright deny having feelings for him, you said it would be awkward if you told him your feelings. So you DO have feelings," she said, stroking her chin.

"No- I mean Yes- I mean," Winry stuttered.

"Whatever. If you're not making a move on him, you're inviting me over for dinner so that I can," Marissa interrupted.

"But Marissa- Granny's not expecting you. She sent Edward and I out for all those groceries, and I doubt she included you. She didn't even know they were coming, which is why she snet us for groceries in the first place!"

"It's alright, just give me a little. I'm really not that hungry... for food, that is... if you catch my drift,"

"Hello, ladies," came a voice from behind them.

"Can't you see we're busy?" Marissa asked the stranger.

Winry turned to look and gasped.

"YOU!"

"Hello, Winry. Nice to see you again,"

"EDWARD!"

* * *

At the sound of his name, Edward snapped his attention. He had been going back to Winry's house slowly, the groceries, hardware tools, and screwdriver holding him down.

Realizing it was Winry who screamed, Ed quickly dropped the bags, turned and sprinted back toward the park.

"WIN!" he shouted. "Winry! Where are you!"

"Ed!"

Ed dug in his heels, sliding to a stop. Winry was running toward him, away from something. She crashed into him, burying her face in his shirt as if he were her only source of protection and comfort.

"Winry, what happened?"

"I happened," said a boy. He was about the same height as Ed, although a little shorter. He wore black shorts and a black shirt. To complete the picture, his hair was black.

"Wrath," Ed spat. He moved Winry behind him, shielding her with his body.

"Hehehe, You knew I'd come eventually," the boy laughed. "Didn't think we'd just let you get away. No, you're much too valuable and have too much knowledge for us to just let you go,"

"What do you want?" Edward asked, fearing the answer.

"You know exactly what I want," Wrath said.

Marissa watched the standoff behind the shelter of a tree. A small crowd had gathered behind her, those who were in the park that knew Winry and heard her scream.

"Sorry, I've lost track of what you guys want," Ed said, being sarcastic and playing dumb. "You'll have to be a little more specific,"

"Don't give me that, Fullmetal," Wrath said. He bent down and picked up a rock, immediately changing his arm into a pointed rock, his weapon of choce.

Ed stepped back as Wrath charged and pushed Winry out of the way. He clapped his hands and his automail extended into a knife, tearing his white glove. He quickly put it up to block Wrath's incoming attack. A spark flew from their contact of metal and stone. Ed pushed Wrath off and charged the homunculus. Wrath dodged skillfully, hitting Ed's back with his elbow as the alchemist passed by. Ed stumbled to the ground.

"Ed!" Winry shouted from the ground where Ed had pushed her.

"Winry! Run!" Ed shouted to her as Wrath jumped to hit him from the air. There were more sparks as the weapons collided more strongly. Wrath used gravity to help him lower his weapon toward Ed's body, which was underneath his. But Ed was persistent, using his flesh arm to try and hold his metal one upright, fendiing of Wrath's attack. Ed stored energy for a push, and Wrath was sent reeling backwards... right toward Winry.

Winry didn't have enough time to get out of the way. Wrath tumbled over her, seizing her long hair as he passed and dragging her with him. Winry screamed in pain. Wrath lowered his stone arm to Winry's throat. Ed clapped and put his hands to the ground, alchemizing a machine gun linked to the ground.

Both paused in waiting.

"Well, we seem to have a sttandoff here," Wrath then said, holding his arm closer to Winry's neck. Winry flinched. "Only problem for you is... I seem to have the upper hand,"

Ed stepped back slightly, knowing that the homunculus was right.

"If you fire, you risk hurting your precious automail mechanic. If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll kill her myself. She'll either die by your hand or mine, unless you give me the stone,"

"... I don't have it," Ed said, and shot.

Wrath pushed Winry forward using her to prepel him away from the bullet. The machine gun quickly disappeared, and Edward ran toward the duo.

"You stupid boy," Wrath said, and spun, aiming his knife straight toward Winry.

But suddenly Edward was there, with Wrath's stone hand sticking in and out of his shoulder. The blade stopped just before Winry's head, and her face was splattered with dots of blood, eyes wide with fear and horror.

A collective gasp alerted the trio to the crowd watching.

"Hmph," Wrath said, and dislodged his arm from Ed's shoulder. "This isn't over, Edward. Not by a long shot. I'll have your body, and that stone,"

"And I'll be waiting- to stop you," Ed choked out.

And Wrath disappeared.

Edward fell forward, blood spurting from his mouth as he coughed.

"You- okay- Winry?" he asked, heaving breaths between every word.

"Edward," was all she said, the fear apparent in her voice.

Ed struggled to stand, falling over and stumbliing a few times, but he finally got to his feet. "Let's- go,"

"But Ed!" Winry shouted. "You were just practically killed! You are in no shape to move, Ed. Let me get Armstrong to come back and help you!"

"I'll- be fine-" he said, and staggered forward. "Don't forget- those groceries-" he heaved.

"Groceries!" she shouted. "I think you're more important that groceries, Edward!"

"I said- I'd be fine-... Would you just- get the dang groceries-" Ed said, still moving forward.

Winry's eyes filled with tears. But she wouldn't shed them. Not in front of him. She walked to the side and picked up the groceries, heaving them up with their heavy weight.

Marissa shyed forward, out of the shadow of the trees.

"Winry..." she whispered.

The mechanic looked up at her friend, tears threatening to spill.

Marissa silently took some of the groceries from Winry's arms and helped the girl to her feet. Marissa had wordlessly volunteered herself to help get the groceries home.

"Thank you," Winry said, her voice wavering.

* * *

"Edward? Winry? Are you back?" Alphonse came cheerily around the corner of the hall when he heard the door open. His next statement worried both the other people in the house. "Brother! What happened to you!"

"I'm- fine- Al-" Ed said. "I'm- gonna go- lie down-" Ed headed off upstairs to the room he and Al shared.

Winry looked down at the floor as Alphonse turned to her for an explanation after Ed's door closed. She gulped.

"Hello," Alphonse greeted Marissa. "You are..."

"Marissa,"

"Oh! You were brother's schoolmate,"

"Then... you must be Alphonse!" Marissa said, realization hitting her.

"Correct. Here, let me help you with those," he said, taking some of the bags away from Winry. The boy pushed her down onto the couch and showed Marissa the way to the kitchen to help put the groceries away.

"So what happened?" Al whispered to her as they made their way to the kitchen.

"I... don't exactly know," Marissa whispered back. "From what I can tell, this boy... I think Edward called him Wrath... came after Winry. Your brother fought him. It was one of the most horrible things I've ever seen. But it ended up with the boy's arm being changed into a pointy rock, and he stuck it through Ed's shoulder. The boy disappeared. Ed got up, but wouldn't let Winry help him at all. As a matter of fact, he pretty much told her to bug off,"

"That's not like brother..." Alphonse said as they passed through the door to the kitchen where both Pinako and Armstrong were sitting.

"What happened?" Pinako asked.

After the story had been relayed again, they sat in uncomfortable silence.

"Winry's out on the couch," Marissa said, trying to break the silence.

But it didn't work. They returned to a state of silence until Armstrong spoke up.

"What's your take on this, Alphonse?"

Alphonse concentrated hard, his face unlike any a ten-year old was likely to make. But Al was wise beyond his looks.

"My guess would be... that the Stone is keeping him alive,"

"The stone?" Armstrong asked.

"Uh, 'scuse me, but what stone is this?" Marissa asked, thoroughly clueless.

"The Philosopher's Stone," Al replied. Marissa nodded, even though she had thought it just to be a legend. "I don't know exactly how brother made it, but from what I could tell, he put some of his own blood in it. The blood from the stone is fueling him, keeping him alive. And it'll probably help heal him faster too,"

Marissa and Armstrong gasped.

"That stone can do that?" Marissa asked.

It was at this point that Alphonse had revealed to yet another person that the Philosopher's Stone was indeed real, and in their hands. He would have to be more careful about this.

Al nodded. "As for brother's odd behavior, I'd say that's a result of the stone too. He took so much care in trying to make sure no one found out. Especially the homunculi. But if Wrath's really the one who attacked brother, then my guess is that brother think's this thing is his fault. He didn't do enough to protect his loved ones from outside sources that could hurt them. But I can tell you that the reason he's going over the top with this is because it was Winry who was the one attacked. I'm sure at least you two by now have guessed brother has feelings for her," Al said, indicating Pinako and Armstrong. "And I'm sure the one person brother wanted to protect the most is Winry. And she was the one attacked first. This is dealing a serious blow to him. And he gets moody when that happens,"

Pinako and Armstrong nodded, both thinking and deciding Al's theory made sense.

Just then, they heard footsteps going up the stairs.

"Winry's gone to see brother," Al said. All four awaited the outcome.

* * *

Winry tipped the door to Ed's room open. She spied him lying, clothes still on, on one of the beds.

"Edward," she murmured. She walked over to him silently, to find him asleep. Through all her confusion, anger, and fear, she smiled upon the sleeping alchemist. He hadn't tended his wounds, and Winry felt that would be the least she could do for him after he'd saved her.

The clothes were rather ruined already, with exception to his pants, so Winry decided to cut them off him to save the time of trying to take them off him without waking him. She took the pair of scissors from the drawer of the dest and began to cut Ed's jacket and shirt.

She blushed at him when done. Although she had seen Ed's chest before, as well as Ed without pants, she still felt slightly embarassed. After all, she was the one who had undressed him. She turned away to cool her cheeks, then took a basin from the bedside table and went to the bathroom to fill it with water and grab some medical supplies.

Upon her return, she noticed Ed's wound had stopped bleeding. She sighed, and began sponging off the dried blood and cleaning the wound, first without soap, as she was sure that soap would wake him up.

When she added the soap to the water, she braced herself for a string of swears to come from Ed's mouth when she placed the ponge to the wound.

And, according to her prediction, Ed awoke and sat up sharply, hissing in pain. But Winry did not let this blind her from her mission. She kept dabbing at the wound until it was clean.

"Winry...?" Edward said, unsure of what she was doing.

Winry did not reply. She stood and went behind him, dabbing the sponge on his back's wound. He hissed again, but the pain soon subsided.

Winry came back around to his front when done and picked up her medical bandage. She wrapped her arms around his to pass the bandage around his back, her face pressed against his neck and her chest lightly pressed against his own. She pulled the bandage back around, leaning away from him, and continued this procedure many times over. Eventually, she started to wrap the bandage around his shoulder, staying silent. When done, she took the scissors off the bedside table and cut the bandage, tying it.

Ed looked at her with an odd expression in his eyes. Then, suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him.

Winry didn't argue, she wrapped her arms around him as well.

They sat there, comfortably hugging until Edward said:

"I'm so sorry,"

Winry blinked. She gently replied, "What?"

"It's my fault," he said, squeeing her a little. "My entire fault that you were attaked by Wrath today. I shouldn't have come back. I should have gone into hiding- something!"

"Edward," she whispered. How could he feel that way? "Well, I'm glad you came back. I was hoping to see you, Ed. I really never get to see you anymore... You have no idea how much that worries me,"

"I'm sorry-" he said.

"Don't. Don't apologize, Edward. It's likely that I would have come to find you if you didn't come back. So I guess it's okay,"

"No! No, Win! It's not okay!" he said pushing her away. "You and your whole family are in danger. Because of me. Because I was selfish and wanted to see you so badly that it blinded me from thinking clearly. Coming back to see you? How stupid can I be!"

"No! No, Ed! You're not stupid! I'm happy, Edward! Can't you see that! I'm happy you were selfish for once in your life! You always do things for others, never for yourself! But you have to be selfish sometimes!" she said, clutching at his chest and burying her head in it.

"I shouldn't," he said, pushing her away again and standing up. "I don't have the right to be selfish, not after attempting a human transmutation on my mother because I was being selfish. That should completely revoke any right I have to containing selfishness within me," He started for the door.

"I want to thank you, Edward!" Winry shouted at him, freezing him in his tracks. "You saved me today. You saved my life by almost giving up yours. That is one of the least selfish things I've ever seen, Edward! And don't go off and tell me you don't deserve my thanks, either! Because you do, Ed. You deserve more thanks from others than anyone I've ever met! But you're too blinded by your own grief to see it!" she got up and ran over to him.

"But I'm going to thank you, Edward. I'm going to make sure you know. Somehow, some way, I'll make sure you get the thanks you deserve,"

Ed remained quiet.

Before exiting the room, he said, "I'm taking you to Central this Friday. It's Elysia's first birthday since... since his death. I think you should be there,"

* * *

TBC

* * *

OOh! How is it?

REVIEW!

I have no idea what I'm doing posting this when I have so many other fics to work on, so don't think that I'll update as fast as I usually do... or used to do...

ANYWHO!

I'm in another play. It's of Dramafest. We're doing _the Dining Room_, by A.R. Gurney. and I have finals coming up, so don't expect updates for a while.

animebookworm44


	2. Chapter 2

Alright, I have no idea WHY I'm doing this, with my busy schedule and all, but for some reason I felt like I had to write the second chapter.

Go figure

THANKS TO ALL REVIEWERS

REVIEW AGAIN, PLEASE!

**Disclaimer:** Standard

OMYGOODGOLLYGOSH! THE PATRIOTS LOST! What the HECK is that about!

...Erm... on with the fic!

* * *

The train ride to Central was practically silent.

No that it wasn't considered normal around these two, they'd been silent toward each other all week.

Winry sat across from Edward, staring out the window, all sorts of questions plaguing her mind. She'd tried not to cry when confronted with her memory's insistence of making her relive that moment when Ed saved her. She still had no idea how he did it, and no idea how he survived.

And there was something wrong with that memory that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

**Chapter 2**

Winry wanted desperately for Edward to say something, anything. Maybe they could go back to the way things used to be if they tried talking. They hadn't left on the best of terms. She sighed, catghing Edward's attention, but he just watched her, as silent as ever.

Edward himself was contemplating. Telling her as little as he did had gotten her into that much trouble. She almost DIED for goodness sake! No... it would be best not to tell her any more. It would keep her safer. And he hoped to god she didn't notice what had happened with his arm in that battle.

Ed's gaze returned out the window, and her gaze switched to him.

His hands rested softly on his knees.

Her mind flashed back to the battle. His automail...

She gasped in realization.

"...Edward?..." she asked cautiously.

Edward's eyes rested on her. "Yeah?"

"...Your arm..."

His fists clenched. He knew it would be to much to hope for.

"...What _happened_ to it..."

When Ed didn't answer, she asked the same question in more detail.

"...During that battle... you changed it into automail again... How?"

Again Edward was silent.

"It's my automail, Ed! I have a right to know!"

Ed sighed. "After I returned Al to his body... I turned to making my own arm again. I placed the stone against the automail and concentrated. But the skin streched over the automail, conforming to its pattern and shape..."

"...After that happened, my new arm slowly started to disintegrate the metal under it... Piece by piece the automail was broken into little tiny fragments that disingetgated right inside of my arm. I could feel every piece, every wire as it left,"

"Don't do it, by the way, it's one of the most painful things in the world. Moreso even than automail surgery," this got a laugh out of Winry, and Edward alllowed himself a small smile. "But even after all that, there were still tiny fragments of metal that were large enough not to be disintegrated,"

"When I redid my leg after that, I took off the autmail before I made the leg, leaving the old automail port as the only metal in the limbs. I'd hoped to avoid the pain that had come with making the arm. All of the metal from the port disintegrated,"

"The first time I fought, after making my new arm and leg, I'd forgotten my arm wasn't automail anymore. But when I tried to extract the metal I usually use for a knife, the metal still in my skin came out and conformed over my hand and extended, letting me use the automail knife, even though I no longer have automail,"

"It was a great cover, too. No one in the military knew that I didn't have automail anymore, and neither did the homunculi I was using it against... That is, until one day when they ripped my shirt sleeve off in the fight, disovering that only the hand had a coating of metal over it. I fled the scene, hoping they didn't see. And lucky for me, they weren't exactly sure of what they saw. But from then on, they suspected..."

"Edward..." Winry whispered. "So my automail didn't disappear after all!" she said angrily, taking out the wrench.

"Eep!" Ed whimpered. "No... well, some did! But, it is unreachable. I tried extracting it from my skin, but it wouldn't come out,"

Winry sighed, and put the wrench away.

"Nothing I can do about it really," Winry said, sighing. "I supposed I should be glad you survived that procedure, you did say it was painful,"

"Hey, look! We're here," Ed said, the train slowly pulling into Central Station. "Got your present?"

Winry grabbed the wrapped box and a suitcase, smiling.

* * *

"Hello, Edward! Winry, what a surprise!" Mrs. Hughes greeted them at the door of Hughes' house. "Please come in!" she ushered them inside, taking both of their presents from them and putting them in another room.

"Winry!" the little girl shouted. She ran and clung to Winry's leg before WInry picked her up.

"Elysia" Winry said. "How are you?"

"I'm okay!" Elysia said. "It's my birthday!"

"I know! Are you excited?"

"Yes!"

"Can you tell me how old you're turning?" Winry asked.

"I'm going to be Five!" she said. "Which means Edward's going to be... Seventeen!"

At his name, Edward was brought into the conversation. "Hi, Elysia!"

"Hi, Ed! Did you bring me a present?"

"Of course I did!" he said.

"Elysia!" Mrs. Hughes called, coming into the room. "Do you want to come help mommy with the food?"

A strange look crossed Elysia's face, and she shook her head fervently.

A strange look then crossed Gracia's face, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. "Alright then, dear. You just keep the guests busy, okay?"

Elysia nodded shyly. Edward was the only one to notice Elysia's and Gracia's changes in expression.

The doorbell rang, and Edward opened the door to Colonel Mustang and Riza Hawkeye. Elysia waved hello from Winry's arms.

"Edward, Happy Brithday," Mustang greeted after giving Edward Elysia's present to put aside in another room. "I hope Alphonse is getting better,"

"Oh yeah," Edward said. "Going home is doing him loads of good,"

Winry fixed Ed with a glance.

"Miss Rockbell," Mustang nodded.

Winry nodded back.

"Happy Birthday Edward. Afternoon, Miss Rockbell," Hawkeye nodded.

The doorbell rang again. When opened this time, however, a bunch of little kids came running through the door. Sciezka stood behind them, looking dazed. Elysia jumped out of Winry's arms to go greet her friends. Ed and Winry smiled at them. The two made their way into the living room.

"How about some drinks?" Gracia said, bringing out a tray with drinks on it for the adult (ish) guests. She handed one to Edward and Winry.

Ed smiled half-heartedly at her, and Winry took a sip. Gracia then took her leave.

"This is good," Winry said, glancing at the brown liquid in the cup. "I wonder what it is,"

"If all the good little boys and girls would come into the living room, we can start some games," Mrs. Hughes' voice was heard throughout the house.

"Yay!" "Hooray!" "Yippee!" was heard by all as Elysia's friends came into the living room.

"Winry, would you mind helping them get started? While I work on dinner?"

"Not at all, Gracia," Winry said, chugging the last of her drink. Edward watched her closely. "What?" she asked him when she noticed.

"Nothing," he replied.

"Hey, you gonna finish that?" she asked, eyeing Ed's drink.

"Huh?" Ed asked. "Oh... Yeah," he replied, swiging the whole thing down in one sip, and placing the glass on the table beside Winry's. "Ummm... I'm gonna go see if Gracia needs any help," Ed said, swiftly leaving the room.

"Wha?... Okay," Winry replied, confused at Ed's actions. She stood staring after him until the kids started to pull at her skirt, hoping for games.

* * *

Dinner was ready soon after. The little kids sat with Elysia at a table in the dining room. The other adults and children's parents, along with Edward and Winry, sat at the kitchen table.

Gracia had put out nametags as to where everyone was supposed to sit. She sat at the head of the table, Edward and Winry at her sides facing each other. Roy sat next to Ed, and Hawkeye next to Winry. And it went on.

Gracia placed a plate in front of Ed, and then in front of herself, and sat down.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Gracia asked. "Dig in,"

And most did so.

As a matter of fact, Edward was the only one who didn't.

"So, what has everyone been up to?" she asked. "Edward, what's new in the military?"

"Oh, nothing much," Ed said, picking up his fork and moving his food around a little, to make it appear eaten.

Gracia's eyes narrowed for a moment. Next, the look was gone. "Roy, how about you?"

"Well actually, there was talk of the Philosopher's Stone," Roy said.

Ed's and Winry's heads snapped up.

Gracia looked pleasently surprised. "Oh? What of it? Isn't it supposed to be fictional?"

Roy glanced at Edward, watching his expression. "Supposed to be, yes. But, there always has been, and always will be, talk about it. Whether the supposed person created one or not,"

Hawkeye watched Roy carefully, wondering what he would reveal. Gracia still didn't know the boys were looking for the stone.

Or that's what she thought.

Gracia sighed. "My husband talked to me about the Philosopher's Stone before he died,"

All eyes were on her now.

"And what did Hughes tell you?" Roy asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing really. He just said that it would be useful to bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange," she seemed to watch everyone's expressions intently, as if trying to get something out of someone. "And say, for instance, a person was badly damaged, or something, they could use the stone to repair the damaged body parts... Like you, Edward! You have automail, right? Well you could use the Stone to... bring back your arm,"

Edward looked at his plate as everyone looked at him.

"Edward? Are you going to eat?" Gracia asked, concerned. "You really should, you don't look well,"

"I'm fine, thank you, Mrs. Hughes," Edward said in a small voice.

"If you say so," Gracia said, her eyes narrowing again.

Edward gritted his teeth.

Winry looked at him, highly concerned. Mustang next to him could tell something was wrong. Hawkeye, with her acute eyes, could see Ed tremble; whether with fear or anger, she couldn't tell.

The other adults at the party knew nothing of what was going on, and just watched uncomfortably.

But Sciezka saw this as an opportunity. "Mrs. Hughes, if Brigadier General Hughes talked to you before he... died, I wonder if he told you anything about what he was looking for. Or where he may have been going?"

"He said he was going to see the Dr. Marcoh. Why?"

Ed's fists clenched.

"Is this how you did it?" he asked.

"Edward? I'm sorry, what did you say?" Gracia asked.

"I asked if this was how you did it. Was this how you were able to murder Brigadier General Hughes?"

A collective gasp was issued from all parts of the table.

"Edward. I'm his wife, and I'm appalled that you would say that,"

"Don't give me that!" Edward asked, clapping his hands. His automail weapon sprang forth and he held it to her throat.

"Edward!" Winry shouted standing up in her seat. Many screams were heard from the other adults there.

"Sit down, Winry," Edward ordered.

"But Ed-"

"Sit down,"

Winry slowly sat, wondering what was going on.

"Edward What are you-" Gracia started.

"Shut up," Ed said. "I'm the one asking the questions. Was this how you murdered Hughes that night?"

Gracia remained silent for a moment. Then she sighed and smirked, "Jeez Pipsqueak, I was half expecting you not to say anything! What gave me away?"

"Brigadier General Hughes would never reveal information to his wife that could potentially hurt her. If I'm right, you wouldn't have known Hughes was going to see Dr. Marcoh because at the time, Hughes wouldn't have told you. At the time Hughes was supposed to see him, I'm guessing the doc was already dead,"

More gasps.

"I bet that Hughes figured you guys out. He noticed the holes in the Julia Douglas story, just like Sciezka and Winry. But they didn't know Julia was a homunulus, I did, No one but Hughes guessed that the corruption in the military went up as high as th Fuhrer himself. He wouldn't let loose that valuable information to his wife, it would put her in direct jeopardy,"

"And I don't think I need to mention that Elysia would never act the way she did today to her real parent. Refusing to come with you to cook? She knew, and she was scared of you. Maybe you told her that she wouldn't see her real mother again if she didn't cooperate,"

"Well, Fullmetal, you seem to have me all figured out. I'm surprised you didn't say something sooner," she said, her face rippling away. "But I didn't do such a bad job. Maybe I'd play better as you instead,"

In Gracia's place now stood Edward Elric. The boy was exactly like him in every way. Mustang jumped up, ready to snap, and Hawkeye drew her gun.

"For some reason, Edward, I always play you the best. I've had lost of practice," the new Edward said.

Ed gripped his "automail" hand tighter.

"Unfortunately, there's only one person I could play who you are completely defenseless against. Want to see?" Ed's face rippled, and in his place stood...

"Winry..." Edward whispered, lowering his hand. He couldn't help it, it was a natural reaction.

The new Winry grabbed a knife from off the table. The real Winry screamed. Most fled from the house, grabbing the children as they went.

But before anyone knew it, Winry had a knife to Ed's throat. "You'll put that gun away, Miss. And you'll lower your hand Flame Alchemist," Winry said to Mustang and Hawkeye. They slowly did as they were told.

Ed groaned.

"Come now, Edward. You didn't expect me to play without a loaded deck, did you? Speaking of which, that other surprise should be kicking in... now,"

A searing pain ripped through Ed's stomach. He let out a startled yell, clutching at his stomach.

"Edward!" the real Winry shouted.

The fake Winry's face rippled again, and in her place was the soure of the disturbance.

Envy.

"Worried for him, are you?" Envy asked Winry. "Don't worry, the thing that had the lethal dose of poison was his food, which he, unfortunately, didn't touch,"

"What _is_ this?" Edward asked.

"Just a minor poisonous substance that I put in your drink. I sincerely thought you wouldn't drink it, Edward. I thought you would have been smarter than that,"

"I wasn't going to,"

"I know. But to stop that, I put something in your little mechanic's drink that made her love the stuff. And if you didn't drink yours, I knew she'd ask you if she could have it. And I knew that if you knew there was poison in it, you'd drink it just so your _girlfriend_ wouldn't get poisoned,"

Ed shouted in pain again. He started tearing at himself, ripping the shirt and coat off, and pressing his hands to his stomach, using alchemy to slow the poison's flow.

"Well I'll be," Envy said, staring at the Ed crouched before him, breathing hard.

"Edward!" Mustang and Hawkeye shouted, staring disbelievingly at the boy... and his flesh arm.

"Ed," Winry whispered pleadingly, trying to get the fight to stop.

"After all that," Envy started. "And you actually did it! Lust was right! You did create a stone!" Envy laughed. "A pipsqueak like you, and your younger brother! Created a Philosopher's Stone! That's funny,"

"Shut up," Ed said through clenched teeth.

"Well, you know what I'm going to ask now, don't you," Envy said, having transformed into Ed again, holding the knife from the table to his throat. "Give me the Stone, and you live,"

"I'd die before I gave you that thing," Ed said, straining.

"No, Ed!" Winry said, tears streaming from her cheeks.

This brought Envy's attention back to her. He smiled, scaring Winry beyond doubt.

Seconds later, Envy was behind Winry, holding the knife to her throat. "How about her, then?" Ed's voice asked. "Are you ready to let her die? The Stone, Edward. And she lives,"

"Winry," he pleaded, sounding panicked. "Leave her alone, dangit! She's got nothing to do with this,"

"Oh, she's got a lot to do with this now, Edward," Envy said.

Mustang and Hawkeye shared glances. Then Hawkeye pulled out her gun and shot.

It hit Envy point-blank in the eye, a shot that would have killed any human...

...but never a homunculus.

Winry scrambled from Envy's hold as he tipped toward the ground.

"Winry!" Edward shouted, taking hold of her and bringing her close to him, hugging her fiercely.

"Edward," she whispered. "Ed, I thought he was really gonna-"

"Shhh," Ed pleaded, grabbing her hand. "Let's get out of here to safety first, then we can talk all you want,"

"Ed, this way!" Mustang ordered, pointing out the door.

Ed and Winry stood abruptly, Hawkeye, gun drawn, led the way out of the house.

Once outside, Mustang and Hawkeye paused and turned back.

"What are you doing!" Edward yelled at them, tugging Winry along. "Envy won't stay dead for long!"

"Indeed, I won't," Envy said. The homunculus sat atop a telephone booth outside Hughes' house.

"Dangit," Ed cursed under his breath.

"I suppose now would be a good time to start the fighting," Envy said, and jumped off the booth straight for Edward.

Ed pushed Winry down to the pavement and dodged Envy's attack by centimeters. He drew out the automail hand and knife again and charged Envy, swinging wildly. Envy blocked Ed's assault and kicked him, sending the alchemist flying backwards to strech out on the pavement.

Envy then turned to punching the boy, inadvertantly making a crater in the street from the force he used, dust and bits of rock flying out of the crater.

"Dang," Mustang said. "If they use hand-to-hand I can't use alchemy, or I risk hitting Ed. Hawkeye?"

"I can't get a straight shot, sir. And even if I could, that monster wouldn't stay down," Hawkeye replied.

"And Miss Rockbell, I don't suppose you have any hidden weapons," Mustang asked her.

Winry thought, smiled, then said, "Well, I do have deadly accuracy with a wrench,"

Hawkeye and Mustang blinked at her.

Ed was recieving quite a beating from Envy. His punches kept coming, and Ed couldn't find a weakness to exploit in order to get out of the situation. The broken pavement underneath him tore at his back, the poison in his system blurred his vision.

He was going to lose.

Then, out of nowhere, and metal object collided with Envy's head, pushing him off Edward. Ed, through his blurry eyes, saw the shape of a wrench, and smiled. He got up out of the hole, staggering away from Envy.

But the homunculus was up again in a few seconds. "Where are you going, Ed? We're not done here,"

Envy threw another punch at Ed from behind. Ed ducked and kicked a leg out that hit Envy square in the stomach, sending him reeling back into a brick wall. Dust and pebbles spurted from the wall as Envy crashed into it.

"Edward!" Winry shouted, running in and trying to find the alchemist through the dust and broken rock.

Ed pressed his hands together and then to the street. They sent spikes from the rock surfaces nearby straight to the spot Envy had been moments before. He struggled for breath.

Mustang clenched his teeth and joined the fray, leaving Hawkeye alone outside of the could of dust.

"Sir!" she yelled after him, but it was too late. She held her gun level with the cloud, ready to shoot if the need came.

Mustang pushed rocks aside and found a wooden shack, probably for storing gardening tools. And into his head popped an idea.

Ed stood and ran toward the spot where the spikes converged. He tried to find out if he had hit Envy, pinned him down, or something that might give him the upper hand.

"Edward!" Winry's voice stopped him.

"Winry?" he asked, turning and searching the cloud of dust for his mechanic.

"Ed!" came another shout, from another place.

Two Winrys simultaneously came into his line of vision.

He cursed. One of them was Envy... but which one?

"Edward? Is that you? Oh thank goodness," panted one, starting for him.

"Hey, who are you?" asked the other, directed tward the image of herself. "Envy!" she shrieked.

"Envy? No I'm Winry... Which means _you're_ Envy!" the other said, pointing.

"Edward! Help!" the second called.

"You'll need help after I'm through with you!" the first said, taking out a wrench. She flung it at her opposide, who dodged with skill.

A skill Winry didn't have.

Ed knew who was real now. He jumped at the second Winry, bringing his automail up to strike.

"Dang," Envy cursed, running to the actual Winry and punching her in the stomach. She crumbled over his hand, almost knocked out. Envy placed his arms around her as if to choke her. "Don't come closer, Fullmetal runt,"

Ed landed in the spot Envy-Winry was moments before, and turned toward the two. Envy turned back into his usual self, Winry in his arms.

"So... the Stone, or the girl dies," Envy said, looking at Ed.

Ed's vision started blurring again. It wouldn't be long now before the poison would knock him out.

"Don't kill her, Envy," Ed said, breathing hard.

"The stone then,"

"I don't have it,"

"That's what you told Wrath, but I don't buy it," his hold on Winry tightened.

"I don't. It's in safekeeping,"

"Where?"

"... I don't know," Ed said. "All I know is that it's safe,"

"I don't buy it, runt,"

"Envy," a voice called. The homunculus looked up to see Lust, and Gluttony with her. "Come on," she said. "The boss wants to see you,"

"Dang," Envy cursed again. "You haven't seen the last of us, pipsqueak,"

Envy jumped away, dropping Winry.

"Winry," Ed panted as he crumpled to his knees. He crawled over to her, and turned her to face him.

"Edward," she whispered, and passed out.

"Win!" he said, as a dizzy spell hit him.

"Edward!" Mustang called, running up to the two of them.

"She needs help," was all Edward said.

"Right, I'll take her to a hospital, you just stay here,"

Ed nodded. Mustang picked Winry up, and ran away from the boy.

"Edward!" a hurried call from Hawkeye came. "I saw Envy leave! Are you alright? Where's Winry?"

"Mustang took her to a hospital," Ed said.

"But left you?" Hawkeye asked, suspicions forming in her head. She gasped.

A loud banging alerted them both.

"What was that?" Hakweye asked, pulling out her gun and heading toward the source of the noise.

It was a shack, probably used for gardening tools.

She slowed as she neared it. The banging got louder. A hoe was blocking the door. She carefully tipped it aside.

A loud crash followed, and out fell Mustang, bound and gagged.

"Colonel!" Hawkeye said, drawing Ed's attention. She swiftly undid the gag and bound, and Mustang rubbed his wrists and ankles where they had been tied. "How long have you been in there?"

"After I left you I found this shed. I hoped to use the garden tools as weapons, but before I could grab any, someone attacked me from behind. So I've been in here for a good portion of time. Why?"

Hawkeye and Edward shared a look, and Edward sprang to his feet, almost falling over because he was so dizzy from the poison.

"Winry!" he shouted, chasing after the kidnapped girl, and Envy-Mustang.

"Sir, we have a civilian kidnapping," Hawkeye informed him.

"Who?"

"Miss Winry. Ed said you took her off to a hospital, but I doubt that happened if you were telling the truth,"

"Dangit," Mustang said, and got up to follow Ed.

"Win!" Edward shouted, staggering blindly through the dust that was beginning to settle. It was entering his luns, choking him, making it hard to breath. His vision blurred again, and another dizzy spell came on so great that he fell to his knees.

"Miss Rockbell!" Mustang shouted behind him. He stopped as he was about to pass Ed.

"Go!" Ed urged. "They couldn't have gotten far! Please..." Ed said, and fainted.

"Dangit, Ed! You had to pass out now!" Mustang cursed him, faced with a decision. Take his soldier back and get help, or try to find a civilian that meant so much to the boy, yet could be dead or far off already.

When thinking logically, the choice was easy.

"Hawkeye! Call an ambulance! Now! Edward needs help," Mustang said, and picked Ed up.

* * *

TBC!

* * *

That's it for now!

Although, you can expect Ed to be mad in the next chapter.

Jeez! I still have no idea what I'm doing writing this. Maybe... so that should quench the thirst of some of you people. Some of you were bugging me about that automail thing last chapter. SATISFIED? I had planned for this all along, but didn't realize that so many of you would point it out in your reviews.

...speaking of which...

REVIEW!

REALLY! I MEAN IT!

animebookworm44

And as always, I'd appreciate it if you'd look at my profile so that you can answer some questions for me, particularly about my other FMA stories... because I'm not even sure you watch the other anime I write about.


	3. Chapter 3

Alright, I can now devote a little time to actually WRITING stuff.

Every other weekend for TWO MONTHS now, I have been in this tournament called DRAMAfest. We have had rehearsals almost every day, and on top of that there's homework.

But, my dog just had his April Fools birthday (which I was in Boston for, thanks to DRAMAfest) and I have some inspiration.

**Disclaimer:** Standard

Onto the chapter... which I will enjoy writing.

* * *

Ed squinted his eyes against the harsh light emanating from somewhere above his head. When he tried turning on his side, it got worse, for the light reflected off some metal surface and blinded him even more, if possible. In fact, the whole room seemed to glow with this light, and his head didn't feel like taking it. Instead, it felt like it would just explode.

When Ed's eyes finally adjusted, he found himself in an all-white room, accounting for the light bouncing off the white surfaces.

There was only one place he could think of (Well, two, but a sanitarium isn't a very likely choice) where there were all-white rooms.

The Hospital.

**Chapter 3**

He groaned. He'd spent too much time in hospitals than he ever wished to admit. Why was he here again? Well, he was in Central for Elysia's birthday... and he'd taken Winry-

Winry!

Ed gasped and sat up, finding himself in so much pain that he practically bounced back down onto the hospital bed.

"Major Elric, sir?" Someone asked him.

"Hawkeye?" he groaned out, the light still affecting his eyes so much that he had to squint to make out the outline of the Lieutenant.

"Correct, sir. Are you feeling alright, sir?"

"Heck no!" Ed answered, feeling his own forehead. "What happened? Something happened to Winry, I know it. What happened?"

"Sir..." Hawkeye started. "Are you sure you are feeling alright sir? This piece of information might..."

"Just tell me what happened,"

"Miss Rockbell... was abducted yesterday by a man you called Envy, who was acting as Colonel Mustang. You are currently in Central Hospital, where the Colonel has given explicit instructions about your recovery from the wounds the homunculus gave you,"

"Envy. Well, what happened to Winry? Where is she? I remember telling Mustang that he should go look for her. So he must have found her, if he had time to call someone to bring me here,"

When Hawkeye didn't answer, Edward glanced in her direction. She was not meeting his gaze.

"That- that-"

"Major!"

"He didn't listen to me! HE LEFT A CIVILIAN IN GRAVE DANGER! Do you KNOW what Envy could DO to her!"

"Major, please. The Colonel has every possible squad out looking for her-"

"A lot of good THAT'S gonna do! Envy's loooooong gone by now! Why the FLIP did I have to pass out RIGHT THEN!"

"SIR!" Hawkeye said, raising her voice. She cleared her throat. "First, it is bad for you to be yelling. We are in a hospital and your condition still isn't in top form. Second... given the appropriate time to think about it... I believe Colonel Mustang's decision was the right choice,"

"You WHAT!"

"Sir, when we had figure out it was Envy instead of Mustang, the homunculus already had a very good head start on us, not to mention we had no idea whether he'd already harmed her,"

"I THOUGHT the military was supposed to save CIVILIANS! There are many who go down in the line of duty. I should have been one of them. My life for Winry's return, it's equivalency,"

"Not to offend, sir, but- NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE HAS EQUIVALENCY! You, sir, should know that,"

Ed stared at the blankets of his bed.

"Plus, Winry is a strong girl, Edward," she said, forgetting formalities for a moment. "I've seen the way she acts, not to mention that she'd have to be strong to push you around. Which she does quite well, sir,"

* * *

Winry awoke not in Edward's arms, as she had expected, but in a cold hotel-like room with darkened windows and only a small bedside lamp for comfort.

"Ed...ward?" she moaned, sitting up. Her hand reached her forehead, feeling for anything wrong. Finding nothing, she immediately went to the door and tried the handle.

But of course, it was locked.

Winry sighed, taking a seat on the bed. Of course she didn't know where she was. If Ed was here, he wouldn't have locked the door, nor would he have left her alone. So that means, she must have been captured.

Tears sprang to her eyes at this revelation. She hadn't had to face anything alone since... well, in a long time. Ed's old promise to her, that she would never have to go through anything alone again, still had rung true up to this point.

---

_"Winry? I'm sorry,"_

_"Go away, Ed,"_

_"But Winry, Pinako's worried about you. She doesn't know how to say it. Your parents... I just don't think that you should have to go through this alone. I know if my mother died, I would want to be with my brother a whole lot. But you don't have a sister or brother that you can be with. It's not fair,"_

_Sniffles from Winry's direction distracted Ed._

_"Before she left, mummy said that I was gonna get a little brother or sister a few months after they came back," The young girl sniffed again._

_"Aw, Win," Ed said, hugging the child. "Here, why don't we play house all the time. I'll be the big brother, and you can be the little sister, that way you'll always have a brother, and you'll always have fun because we'll never ever stop playing the game, ever,"_

_"Thanks Ed,"_

---

She was still sniffling when she heard the doorknob being turned, and someone stepping into the room. She immediately turned to look.

"You," she whispered.

"Hi, Winry,"

"No! You're dead!"

"I thought it was awfully nice of you to come to town for my Elysia's birthday. She really needed it. She's been so sad since I left, she really needs an older sister. I think she thinks of you like that,"

"No! Mr. Hughes, please stop it," Winry cradled her head in her hands.

"Hey, you heard her, Envy. Now stop,"

"Hey shorty! When did you get to decided what I do and don't do!"

"Since the master put me in charge of the girl!"

Winry heard someone grumble and leave the room. She peeked upward, not wanting to see Mr. Hughes again. Instead, she saw Wrath. When he came toward her, she scrambled to the other side of the bed.

Wrath chuckled condescendingly. "What? Afraid of me, Winry?"

"I'm not afraid... I'm just not taking any chances," she said, clutching the bedsheets.

"Well, you shouldn't be, anyway. I'm not going to hurt you. The master told me not to. She wants you to be in tip-top condition. Although... you were one of the only ones who was nice to me after I was found on that island..." he turned his back to her and sat on the bed.

Winry stood, the change in his voice somewhat reassuring.

He leaned back on the bed, looking at her upside-down (with a view of the underside of her bust). "Heck, you even gave me a bath!"

Winry giggled slightly, (Wrath noticed from this angle that her chest jiggled). But she was unsure of how she could be okay around him after he attacked her earlier. Perhaps it was because this was the homunculus she was most familiar with. She knew that he couldn't change into other people in front of her, so she knew that this couldn't be anyone but Wrath... unless, this was Envy pretending to be Wrath. Could homunculi do that?

"Winry, what's wrong?" Wrath asked innocently.

No, this couldn't be Envy. He wouldn't have known that she'd given Wrath a bath back in Dublith with Izumi and Sig. She doubted Wrath would reveal that... private... information.

"Nothing," she replied, shaking her head (this also made her chest jiggle Wrath was being VERY observant today). "Well, nothing besides being kidnapped, taken away from Edward, and unable to know when I will get another decent meal,"

Wrath laughed. "Are you hungry, Winry? If you are, then I should tell Master. She would want you in top condition,"

"Your master is a woman?" Winry asked, faking innocence.

"Oh yes. Edward is very well acquainted with her,"

A certain emotion surged in Winry for some unknown reason. "And just _how_ acquainted with Edward is she, Wrath?" she asked, leaning over the boy.

"Oh! He's run into her many times on his journeys," Wrath said (momentarily mesmerized by how her chest jiggles more when she leans over, and mentally wondering why this doesn't happen to Lust or Sloth). "It's very funny that he still doesn't know who she is!" Wrath laughed.

The emotion that surged within Winry died, and she thought some more. "I think I would like some food, Wrath,"

"Okay!" Wrath said, sitting up. "Master says that you should get out of those clothes. They are stinky and wet. And that you can change into any one of the dresses in the closet! But she said that you should dress well for your first dinner with her, which will be in a few hours,"

"Er- right. Thank you, Wrath,"

The boy left.

And Winry proceeded to sob into her pillow.

* * *

"She's not as strong as she appears to be,"

"What?" Hawkeye asked the young alchemist.

"Winry. You said she's strong, but she's not as strong as she pretends to be,"

"Edward, I'm not sure how you mean that,"

"She pretends to be strong. She's a great actress too. But you haven't been there with her. Do you know why I never went home in the first four years I was a state alchemist?"

Hawkeye was silent, staring at the youth.

"It was because of her. And her grandmother. The looks they gave me when Al and I walked away were heart-wrenching. I knew what I was getting into, being a dog of the military. I knew I'd make friends fast, but enemies even faster. Enemies of the state were now my enemies, not to mention that state alchemists are a hot debate among the people of Amestris. That's also the reason why I never try to stay at home longer than I have to. If they found where I lived... Great job I did at that, anyway. Wrath was able to follow me there and attacked Winry,"

He glanced at Hawkeye, and was pleased to find he still had her rapt attention.

"Every time I go back there, it gets harder and harder to leave. Her last looks at me tear me even more, and I push to get away from saying the stuff I want to say to her. You can see perfectly her vulnerability when she gives me those looks. You didn't see the look on her face when she was told her parents died. Her mother was pregnant, did you know that?"

A soft gasp from Hawkeye brought Ed's attention back to her.

"I didn't think you did. Needless to say, it only made me madder at Mustang for killing three people instead of two, when I found out he was the Rockbell's murderer. She cried for three days straight. I promised her that I'd always be there for her, like a surrogate brother. And then my mother died, her surrogate mother, and she cried even more,"

"After those two, she learned to harden, but there are still cracks in her facade. You can see them every once in a while. Like when Al and I leave. Or, when I used to call Nelly's house to talk to her because Winry's over there, and I hear Win sniffling in the background while Nelly tries to make up an excuse that will give Win time to dry her tears, with Nelly knowing all the while that I can hear Win perfectly well. And then when she comes on the phone a few moments later, in her perfectly fake "happy voice" telling me about some new automail tool she just got, or in her "angry voice" yelling at me because she thought I busted my automail again,"

Ed chuckled.

"Although, that won't happen anymore," he said, pulling up his flesh right arm. "I'm sure by now, everybody knows,"

"Actually, Edward, Mustang asked that the nurse keep it a secret about your automail, and he's forbidden anyone from coming to see you, for their own safety, as well as yours,"

"Well, at least the Colonel did SOMETHING right,"

"Edward..." Hawkeye warned.

"It's perfectly alright, Hawkeye," another voice came in from the hallway. "I can understand what Fullmetal is saying, and why he is angry with me. Miss Rockbell is a very dear childhood friend of his. I'm sure I'd feel the same way if one of my friends was abducted,"

Edward grumbled at the sudden appearance of his superior officer.

"Feeling well, Edward?" Mustang asked, his voice reeking of superiority.

"I'd be feeling better if my best friend wasn't ABDUCTED!"

"Ah, ah, Edward! Superior officer," Mustang taunted, pointing a finger at himself.

Ed leaned back on the bed and crossed his arms, glaring at the Colonel and sighing.

Hawkeye sighed as well. She could most certainly see Edward's reason of dislike for the Colonel when she was in a room with the both of them. The Colonel didn't stop teasing the alchemist, leaving Ed's only option as yelling. But she knew that the Colonel was only teasing to remind Edward that he was still a child, and could act like it sometimes. Perhaps that message didn't get across to Edward as well as she had hoped.

"Sir, perhaps you ought to brief Major Elric on the situation," Hawkeye said, clearing her throat.

"What 'situation', Hawkeye? There is no situation on anything. We haven't been able to find her, as much as we've been looking," Mustang said, shrugging. "I don't believe I needed to tell 'Major Elric' that, though, Hawkeye. From his previous dealings with the homunculi, I'm sure he already knew that we wouldn't,"

Ed nodded.

"What I think is our next course of action, is getting 'Major Elric' to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,"

"So help me god," Ed said sarcastically.

"No jokes, Edward. I want answers. What happened to you and your brother? You're obviously whole again. What about your brother? What about that suit of armor that-"

"Alright! Alright! I get it, you don't have to ask me twice. But I need you both to promise that whatever is said in this room does not leave this room. It is very important that you both give me your word,"

"Done," Mustang said, sitting next to Hawkeye.

"Sir," Hawkeye said, referring to Edward.

"That last attempt at the philosopher's stone was a success. Not even with your word to I dare explain my procedure here. So, with the stone, I pulled Al's body from the gate,"

At the confused looks on both of their faces, Edward attempted an explanation.

"It's the place where all alchemic energy comes from. When you draw a transmutation circle, you open the gate and take out energy from the souls contained within. But the souls in there have no real need of bodies, so they left Al alone when his body crossed into the gate during our illegal transmutation. Then, I just attached the soul and mind in the armor to the body. It being his own body, the soul and mind weren't rejected, so Al was brought back. At the time, he was unconscious because the body couldn't handle getting a soul and mind and was exhausted. So, I turned to making myself a new arm and leg,"

"Which we've seen was a half-success," Mustang said.

"Yes, the first one was my arm, and I didn't take off my automail, because I had no idea how to MAKE an arm. Anyway, it disintegrated beneath a layer of skin that stretched from my shoulder. I took the automail out to do my leg, it was much less painful. Anyway, I carried Al to a hotel and we stayed there for a day, until Al woke up. I started to pump energy into Alphonse's old armor, to fool everyone. We couldn't have the homunculi figuring out that we'd made a stone. Al stayed in a hotel while I took the armor to the dorm,"

"And that's where the military stepped in," Mustang said.

"Yeah. You tried interrogating the empty-shell of my brother without my knowing and, for the sake of everyone's safety, I asked for a vacation to Resembool. It was a chance I was willing to take, to go home again and show them and my mother that I paid for my sin. However, it wasn't until I was halfway there with Major Armstrong when I figured out that I could be putting them in jeopardy. But I still did it anyway. Major Armstrong knows about us. Pinako and Winry know. But that's it. Well, besides the homunculi now. That's why they want Winry,"

Mustang leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. "So you don't currently have the Philosopher's stone in your possession," he asked.

"No,"

"And no one else knows where it is?"

"No,"

"Good, that would have been an unnecessary drawback," Mustang said, and looked at Edward. "Where do you think we should start?"

"We should call her grandmother and inform her of the incident, but plead with her to remain in Resembool with Al and the Major. I don't know anything about the homunculi's headquarters, so we'll just have to wait out for any attacks they institute. We know they'll be back to get me. If possible, we should set up an exchange. Winry for the Philosopher's stone,"

"You would seriously do that, what with all the trouble you had to go through to get it?"

"Of course not!" Edward said. "The ingredients to the philosopher's stone are far too dangerous to do that. But, if I've learned to make a real one, I've certainly learned how to make a really good fake. Besides, we shouldn't expect the homunculi to play without a loaded deck. But it may give us a clue as to where they're keeping Winry, or even where their hideout is,"

"Smart," Mustang said, grinning on the inside.

"Until we can set this up, I would like to appear to be left alone when I am released from the hospital. This puts me in a vulnerable position, and they may make an offensive move, thinking I'm alone,"

"But we'll have backup for you, correct?"

"Correct. The more military personnel around me, the more likely it is that we'll be able to get _something_ out of the homunculi,"

A nurse appeared at the door. "Visiting hours are over," she said politely to Mustang and Hawkeye. She blushed when Mustang turned to look at her, while Hawkeye scowled at the both of them.

"Good plan, Edward. The doctor says you may be released tomorrow," Mustang said, turning back to the boy in the bed.

"We'll talk then," Ed said.

* * *

Winry didn't know how the dress could be any tighter, nor show off any more of her cleavage. Wrath had picked it out when he'd come with Winry's snack. It was an old style dress, looking like one that would have been used for balls in prior times. The color was a dark blue that matched her eyes. The bodice part was off-white with a dark blue ribbon that came to pull two halves together in a criss-cross fashion that was tied in a bow at about the height of her stomach. The sleeves ended at her elbows with frilly lace around the cut. There was more of the frilly lace where the neck of the dress stooped low. Had the lace not been there, it was likely that you would have seen most of her chest area.

Winry had no idea why she had to wear such a revealing dress to dinner with her kidnapper, especially if she was a _she_. Wouldn't a normal kidnapper not invite you to dinner in the first place? It seemed very odd to Winry.

When Winry knocked on her door, allowing Wrath to come back in, he smiled and clapped his hands together, saying she looked awfully pretty. Winry noticed his eyes travel along the stooping neckline, and blushed red. Wrath just laughed. He took her hand and led her over to the vanity. He pushed her down into the seat and began ruffling through the drawers. Winry watched him curiously.

He straightened a few moments later, cradling in his hands a small pearl necklace the same shade as the off-white color in her dress. He fumbled with the clasp, and then placed the necklace around her neck. It was simple, yet held a sort of elegance that big flashy jewelry couldn't muster.

"You should curl your hair!" Wrath said, sitting on her bed while she marveled at the necklace. "Master will be very pleased. She likes curly hair, and it would look good on you,"

Winry seemed to think about it. "Do I have time?" she asked.

"Oh yes! Dinner doesn't begin until seven. That gives you fifteen minutes!"

Winry took the time while the iron was heating to ask Wrath a question.

"Wrath... Don't homunculi not have to eat?"

Wrath put a finger to his chin. "Well, four of us don't. But because Pride and I are homunculi that can age, we have to. Greed died. And of course Gluttony does, it's what he's named after. And then, the Master's not a homunculus, so she has to eat!" He smiled brightly.

Winry had already figured out that the homunculi must have been named after the seven deadly sins. Placing the iron on a strand of her hair, she softly started to curl it. She sighed.

"What is the deal with you and Edward?" Wrath asked.

"Huh?" Winry asked, her hand jolting so that the iron scorched her neck a bit. Wrath did not repeat himself. "Well... Edward and I have been together since I was born. He's only nine months older than I am, and his mother came to my mother for his birth. Father was mother's doctor the day I was born, so Trisha was there with my mother Sara, and therefore, Edward was there. I've been told he was very helpful. He didn't even cry when he heard my mother screaming. Instead, he tottered over to her and gave her a hug. Mother was so astounded,"

Winry placed the curling iron on the next clump of hair.

"When they found I was a girl, they immediately paired Edward and me up for everything. I was even there the day Alphonse was born. Edward and I have been childhood friends forever. And we will always be friends. We've gone through too much stuff together for anything to be able to break us apart now," she snuck a look at Wrath while she held the iron up against her head, curling a new strand. His face showed inquisitiveness. She started again, "... But lately..."

"Lately what?" Wrath asked.

"Nothing!" Winry ushered, putting the iron down, straightening her hair, standing up and situating her skirts about her. "Come on, Wrath. It's almost dinnertime,"

"Right," he said, grabbing onto Winry's hand and pulling her along behind him.

He led her down a long staircase at the end of the hallway where her prison of a room was. Winry tried very hard to remember all the halls Wrath led her down, so that she might be able to get out if she escaped, but she didn't see an exit anyway. A long staircase led to a ballroom-like dining hall with one long table set in the center, and a stage at one end. Winry gasped at its entirety. It was a beautifully built room.

She was brought back down to earth (or Amestris) by Wrath tugging on her hand, leading her toward the table.

"Ah!" a voice from the table called. A young woman with short black hair stood at the end of the table opposite the side Winry was being pushed toward.

A cry from a baby interrupted everything. Winry looked around to find the tiny child, and peeked at it in a cloth held by another woman at the table, who hadn't stood up and was paying attention only to the baby in her arms.

"Good Evening, Winry. I am pleased to finally meet you. My name is Lyra," the woman with the black hair said, still standing. "You look even better in that gown than I thought you would," Winry felt slightly uncomfortable in the presence of this woman. "And you have a magnificently well-built body. It's no wonder Edward loves you so much,"

At this phrase, the silent woman with the baby gasped, but her eyes didn't seem to focus, and she went right on staring at the baby.

"Aw, poor dear. Winry, this is Rose. Rose, why don't you tell Winry how much you love Edward and say hello?"

There was quiet for a few moments as Rose tried to gather words. "I- I- lo-ve- lo-"

Winry's heart reached out to the girl. She was obviously being held here against her will, and she was in inner turmoil. But, she said- or tried to say- that she loved Edward. Was this baby his?

A wail from said baby brought its mother's attention back to it.

"I think he's hungry, Rose dear. Perhaps you should feed him," Lyra suggested, sitting down and motioning for Winry to sit too.

Winry's eyes stuck to the girl as she pulled on the bosom of her own ballroom gown and one of her breasts protruded, which the baby sought out skillfully and started to suckle on.

"I hope you don't mind, Winry dear," Lyra asked, catching Winry staring.

"Er- no. Not at all. It's just natural, right?" Winry replied, feeling entirely uncomfortable. She felt a sort of relief when Wrath sat down next to her and picked up his fork and knife.

"I'm hungry!" he said.

"Don't be impatient, Wrath. It's bad manners. And can't you see we have a guest tonight? Well, I suppose we must start eating at some point," she clapped her hands twice. Some animal-like things came toward them with dinner plates on their heads. "Chimeras," Lyra explained. "They can be the best servants in the world if you train them correctly,"

Winry's mouth formed an "oh" but no sound came out.

Dinner was going to be very interesting.

* * *

TBC

* * *

HEYA! I haven't updated in a while. So, here you go.

P.S. I figured that Izumi did her human transmutation on the boy who was to become Wrath when he was only a baby, therefore Wrath had to age.

_**P.P.S. REVIEW PLEASE**_

animebookworm44


	4. Chapter 4

Ready for another chapter!

IT'S SCHOOL VACATION! YAY!

And so, I can actually WRITE!

**Disclaimer: **Standard

SO, here we go.

* * *

Winry sat through a rather interesting dinner joined by Wrath, Gluttony, Lyra, and the girl Rose with her baby. Upon later reflection, she would find that it was the oddest experience of her life.

Here she sat, with her kidnapper, two homunculi who could very easily kill her, and a rather silent woman with a baby who she knew nothing about.

More than that, Lyra acted like this was an everyday occurrence, and tried to carry polite small talk all through dinner.

**Chapter 4**

"So, Winry dear. It would be helpful if I knew more about you. Let's start with a subject we all know about: Edward. So, Winry dear, how long have you known the boy?"

"Er- well-" Winry didn't know how to answer. Should she tell her kidnapper? Should she not? What was safe to tell her?

It was only when Rose turned her attention to Winry, and away from the baby gently sucking at her breast, that Winry decided to say anything. She had to let this girl know who was boss! She was closer to Ed than this woman with a baby could ever be. She was a testament: when did Ed have time for a relationship, never mind sex! The baby didn't even look like Ed.

"I have known Ed all my life. We are very close," she said with a glare toward the girl. "We played together every day during our former days, and I know more about him than anyone. Probably even including Alphonse,"

"Now _that_ is an interesting tidbit of information," Lyra said raising her eyes and taking a sip from her teacup.

Winry returned her gaze to Lyra, her gaze fearful now. Was Lyra just using Rose to get information out of her? Did she know that Winry would react this way when introduced to Rose and her feelings toward Edward? Is this all a ploy?

"Ed- ward?" Rose said. Winry noticed for the first time that her voice sounded a little strained and muted, as if the girl had just gotten over a case of laryngitis. It made her even more curious about what this girl had gone through.

"Poor dear," Lyra said, threading a piece of Rose's hair behind her ear for her. "We know you miss him. But he loves you, you must be content in that, and know that he will come for you,"

The quick glance in Winry's direction by Lyra was enough to confirm the automail engineer's suspicions that Lyra was using Rose to get information. BUT DANGIT! IT WAS WORKING! SHE COULDN'T BE EXPECTED TO SIT HERE AND TAKE IT!

"Excuse me," Winry said, through clenched teeth. "But I have yet to hear about this woman,"

"All in good time, Winry. Didn't your mother ever teach you that if you want to know something about a person, you should tell them that information about you first? It's very rude otherwise,"

Winry couldn't believe her nerve. She was dropping hints all over about a serious relationship between this woman and Edward, and she had the GALL to tell her that she was being RUDE? Winry didn't think her fists could get any tighter around her napkin, nor did she think she could wish anymore for those hands to be wrapped around this petite woman's neck.

"Are you enjoying your dinner? It doesn't look like you've touched it, Winry,"

"I'm not hungry," she said. Lyra raised an eyebrow. "I'm not hungry... thank you,"

"Wrath told me you were hungry earlier. You should still eat something. You could get sick. Not to mention, we can still add some extra skin to your physique to make you more appealing to the male mind and body,"

"This is ABSURD!" Winry shouted. "Are you really expecting me to fall for this!"

Lyra sighed. "To be honest, I had hoped, yet I also hoped that you wouldn't. It would make everything much easier if you did, however, it would make it much less fun, and I wouldn't be completely sure that you were the right one for Edward. He wouldn't have fallen for this either, and I had expected his lover to be smarter than that,"

"Fallen for what?" Wrath said, sounding offended. There was something going on here behind his back? No one told him of this!

"His **LOVER!**" Winry shrieked, standing up.

An awkward silence fell on the room, broken only by the soft sounds of the baby feeding. Wrath and Winry were both staring at Lyra, one with annoyance, the other with pure hatred.

Lyra sighed. "Well, dinner is finished," she stood and clapped.

The chimeras that had brought the food came in again.

"Just clean up here," she directed at them. "Wrath, you take Winry to her room. Rose dear, you come with me," she wrapped an arm around Rose's shoulders and started to lead her away.

Winry looked with utter shock at the woman's retreating back.

* * *

Ed stared out the window of the hospital room. His mind dwelled on his blonde mechanic who at this very moment could be in mortal peril. She was at the hands of the homunculi, and who knows what they might make her do.

He was mad at Mustang.

But nowhere near as mad as he was at himself.

If he had only...

If he hadn't...

Too many thoughts ran through his head as he stared out at the moon, wondering if Winry could see it from where she was.

The moonlight was the only thing illuminating the white hospital room, and it gave the room an eerie quality, making everything glow and seem to come alive.

A knock on the door brought his attention back to Amestris. "Major Elric, sir?"

"Hawkeye," Ed replied to the First Lieutenant.

"You should be resting, if you really want to get out of here tomorrow, as I'm sure you do,"

"You've known me long enough to know that I never want to spend any more time than I have to in a hospital,"

"... Well yes, but I was referring more to how much I know you will want to get on the trail of those homunculi to get Miss Rockbell back. You need to rest up for that, sir. They will most likely not let Winry go without a fight,"

"... I know..." Ed said.

"... Something, I'm sure, you're not looking forward to," Riza said meaningfully, sitting in one of the chairs by Ed's bed. "You shouldn't have a death wish just because you want to be her knight in shining armor,"

"What do I care if I'm her knight in shining armor! And I _don't_ have a death wish!"

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't try to prove me wrong so much," Hawkeye said simply, standing again. "Get sleep Edward, or I may just make the hospital keep you here another day,"

Ed pouted at her retreating form. He didn't want to be her knight in shining armor! He just wanted to save her! And, by saving her, get all the glory and appreciation from her that he craves...

Aw, dang...

* * *

Winry laid comfortably in the bed thinking.

This was the oddest experience of her life. She was kidnapped, then made to wear pretty dresses and jewelry, sit through dinner with her captor, put on SILK pajamas, and then sleep in a feather-down bed. Although she had a kidnapper, the kidnapper had taste.

She sighed and turned on her side, staring at the small lamp that adorned the bedside table. She turned the lamp off, leaving the room in total darkness except for a strip of light from under the doorway that led to the hall. Wrath was sitting outside.

She closed her eyes, trying to get to sleep.

Suddenly, she felt strange, like someone was watching her. She opened her eyes to see that, instead of the darkness she used to see, the room had an eerie glow about it.

"Psssssssst," someone hissed at her.

She slowly turned around. When she caught sight of who it was, she gasped.

"C'mon Winry, we gotta get out of here, before they find me," The person, braced in the window frame, had apparently busted the window. "Come on! I can't stay in this position forever!" He held out his right hand.

Winry spared a glance toward the door where Wrath was supposedly sitting, before turning back to her midnight caller. She held out her left hand to clasp his right, and was immediately pulled into his embrace.

She shrieked, and immediately put a hand to her mouth.

"Winry!" Wrath called from outside. "Are you alright?"

Winry turned back to face is golden eyes. She inhaled deeply as he watched her mildly, wondering what she would do.

Something was wrong.

Winry tried to pull herself away from his hold, but it wasn't working. She shrieked again, and Wrath burst into the room.

"Fullmetal!" Wrath shouted at the boy in the window.

"Come on, Winry!" he said, pulling the blonde closer and jumping out the window.

Winry shrieked for the third time as he pulled her up onto the roof of the building. He grasped her hand and began to pull, his blonde, braided hair flowing behind him as he pulled along.

"Winry!" a shout from Wrath still down in the room echoed across the rooftop.

Winry looked around. She was in a city, but it didn't look like anyone was here. She looked up to see the stars, but only saw dirt. Some of the houses scaled up the wall.

"It's almost like... the buildings fell into a hole," she murmured. "Are we underground?"

Ed spun around quickly and pushed a hand under her knees and another behind her back, picking her up as he jumped across the rooftop onto another building entirely. She gasped and held onto his neck, burying her face in it and closing her eyes. Yes, it was his scent. He didn't smell right. But it's not that he smelled bad, it was just that the smell wasn't Ed, which sent off flares in her head.

"Ed," she murmured into his neck. He seemed to shiver at the breath on his skin.

The skirt of her nightgown blew up as Ed jumped onto an awning and slid down to the ground. He ran around the building, dragging her along with him. He pulled into an alley, pulling her to him.

They both breathed heavily into each other, their chests touching in the cramped space of the alleyway.

"Are you alright, Winry?" he asked, sounding concerned. He touched a hand to her cheek, making her look into those golden eyes of his.

"Yes," she said. Then tears brimmed in her eyes. "Oh Edward! I didn't think you would come!" she sobbed, glomping onto his neck and pressing herself up against him.

"Why wouldn't I, Winry?" he asked, his breath tickling her neck. "I care about you, more than you could possibly imagine,"

Winry's breath hitched in her throat as her tears kept streaming. "What?" she sobbed.

"I care about you," he said. But there was an odd quality to his voice this time. Her breath caught again as she felt Ed's lips on her neck. He bit into her hungrily, nipping at her neck, kissing it up and down.

"Edward?" she asked, but it sounded more like a moan rather than a question. "What are you doing!"

"I saved you, Winry. Don't you owe something to your savior?" he said. He bit into her harder.

"Ed! Please! STOP!"

* * *

"Master!" Wrath shouted as he burst into the room. "Edward! He was here! And he took back Winry! She's gone!"

"Shut up, Wrath," Lyra said. "Don't listen to him, Rose dear," she then said to the girl, who looked fearful at Wrath's sudden entrance (and his knowledge for Edward).

"But Master-"

"There is no way the little pipsqueak's here. I would have been alerted of his presence before he could even get within twenty feet of is building. He's not here,"

"But then who- ENVY!" Wrath shouted, turned on his heel, and left. Lyra and Rose looked after him.

Wrath exited the building quickly. Whatever Envy was doing with Winry, it wasn't going to be good. And with Envy pretending to be Ed...

_"...But lately..."_

"Shoot!" Wrath said, speeding up.

"Ed! Please! STOP!"

They hadn't gotten far at all. Maybe Envy didn't think Wrath would go after him. Well, he was wrong. He passed by a shop with an awning, and noticed it had been teared. Soft whimpering noises could then be heard, and they were coming from around the corner.

"Ed, please," Winry said softly, as she let out a loud moan. "Stop this,"

"I'm just taking what's mine," he said, biting her neck and earning a small shriek as Wrath noticed his hands somewhere under the skirt that had been hiked up to her waist. She whimpered again, and Wrath noticed a small piece of cloth around her legs, down by her ankles.

"Winry," Wrath said, alerting the two to his presence. "Ed" took his hands out from under the skirt. They looked a little wet, and he wiped them on his leather pants. Winry leaned back against her wall of the alley, breathing heavily and raggedly. "Come on," Wrath said.

He came into the alley and took her hand, leading her away from Envy, and away from the little piece of clothing on the ground. He took her back through the streets toward the building where she had been staying.

On the way there, Winry broke down into sobs.

* * *

Ed woke up suddenly. He was not aware of ever having fallen asleep, yet here he was, waking abruptly. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and looked out at the moon again.

"Winry..." he said quietly.

He knew he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

* * *

Winry was too depressed, emotional, and angry to try and remember how she entered the building, in order to be able to exit again when the time came. Her tears blinded her, and the only thing that really kept her conscious afloat was Wrath's firm hand on hers, leading her to "safety". She sobbed her way up the stairs, and into her own room.

Once there, she fell on the bed, and started to bawl her eyes out into her pillow. Wrath sat on the bed, after locking the door, listening to Winry's sobs and feeling a deep emotion of hatred toward Envy for making the girl feel this way, making her cry.

If there was one thing Wrath hated, it was crying.

He couldn't stand for Rose's baby to cry, for some reason it made him ache inside, while his head rang out with sharp pains. His eyes showed flashes of the woman in Dublith when he was found, which transform almost immediately into a picture of Sloth.

Sloth! Yes, mommy would know what to do, know how to get her to stop crying.

Wrath saw Winry's hand move down to an area below her stomach, feeling once around where Envy had touched her.

"Wrath?" a soft, pained voice asked from beneath a pillow. Her hand still hadn't moved.

"Winry?"

"Could you go to the dresser, and take out one of the things in the first drawer?" she asked, her hand tightening on the nightgown. She felt as Wrath's body weight left the bed and it shifted.

"Here," he said, placing the panties on the hand around her "area".

"Thank you," she said, grasping the panties. She emerged from the pillow, her face red from crying and from the embarrassing favor she'd just asked Wrath to do. She slowly pulled the panties on, having left her old ones behind at the scene of the happening.

"Winry, would it be okay if I go-"

"NO!" Winry shouted, grabbing onto his arm. Ed's arm. Winry retracted, pushing herself up to the head of the bed. "I mean- just- please, don't leave me alone... he could come back... He said he cared..."

"Winry, you know that wasn't-"

"YES! I knew it wasn't ED! But I went anyway! I wanted so BADLY to believe it was him! But it wasn't!... He said he cared... He... _touched_ me," She threw herself at Wrath, who was knocked over with her sudden weight.

But through it all, he was careful not to touch her with Ed's arm.

She cried into his shirt, bawling over and over that he _touched_ her. She trusted him, and he _touched_ her.

Wrath didn't quite understand, not currently informed on such subjects as his impending sexuality. He did know that, with Winry in his arms, there was a strange feeling in the around the area on him where Envy had touched Winry. He also noticed that the area Envy touched Winry in was rubbing up and down on the area where this feeling was settled in him, and was undoubtedly one of the causes for the feeling being there in the first place.

But still, Wrath didn't currently know what Winry was making such a big fuss over.

"The thing is..." Winry suddenly said, lifting her head off Wrath's chest. "I've been waiting for him... to do that to me... for such a long time... I've waited so long for him..."

"Er- Winry?" Wrath interrupted, after the feeling in his stomach suddenly changed at her words. He didn't want to hear any more, "I know someone... she might be able to help. I should go get her,"

"No need, Wrath honey. I'm here,"

"Mommy!" Wrath said, excitedly. Sloth came closer, having slipped under the door in her watery state.

Winry dried her eyes, looking up to the woman who Wrath called Mommy. She gasped.

"Winry, dear," she said, sitting on the bed on the other side of Winry. "Come here, honey," she held her arms open.

Winry dove into them. "Mrs. Elric!" she sobbed.

"Aw, deary. Did one of my boys do something to hurt you?"

"Ed... well, he _touched_ me,"

"He what!" Sloth gasped, her arms falling limp around the teen in them. "Oh, my dear girl. I shall have to have a real talk with him. I brought him up better than that, going around _touching_ girls. Especially ones as sweet as you,"

Winry laughed through her tears into Sloth's bosom.

"There now. I'll take care of it. You may stop crying now, Winry dear. You should rest up and get to sleep. That's the best thing to do after a traumatic event. No more crying, that's it. Wrath, I want to talk to you right now, we have a few new... matters to discuss... There's a TALK I've been meaning to have with you for a while,"

"Don't leave me alone!" Winry cried.

"Er- here dear. I'll go, and leave Wrath with you. And then I'll be back with another person to watch you, while I go have my talk with Wrath,"

Sloth got up, and seemed to glide across the room. She unlocked the door, sliding out it with a last glance back toward the rather depressed girl.

"I wonder what mommy wants to talk to me about," Wrath wondered aloud.

They settled into silence as they waited for Sloth to return.

She came back a few silent minutes later, thrusting the girl Rose into the room, and taking Wrath out.

Winry watched in silence as Rose settled herself in a chair.

* * *

"Now Wrath, there's a little talk that I've been putting off giving to you. I wasn't able to give this speech to my own sons. I died before I was able to. But you see, Master and I weren't quite sure whether you'd exhibit the tendencies or not. It all depended on whether you turned out like Pride. He is the only one of us with the ability to... produce children. I'm sure that you can tell by now," she said, sitting on a couch, and plopping Wrath into a seat opposite her. "That the feelings Winry has for Edward aren't just friendship,"

"What are they mommy? I don't get it,"

"Well, Wrath, Winry and Edward are attracted to each other... sexually. This is one of the reasons why Master chose to kidnap her. Their feelings for each other run deeper than friendship. This feeling is called love. Edward and Winry love each other, they are in love,"

"Well that's alright. I love you, mommy,"

Sloth chuckled. "It's not the same type of love, Wrath. You see, Edward and Winry love each other so much, that they want to make children,"

"Make children?"

She chuckled rather nervously, now. "Well Wrath, when a girl and a boy love each other very much..."

* * *

"Uh, hello," Winry said, watching the woman in the chair.

Rose didn't answer.

"I noticed you... have a baby," Winry said, quite uncomfortable.

"...My baby..." she said.

Winry was once again reminded that the woman's voice sounded strained and muted.

"Do you have a husband?" Winry asked, sniffing.

"... My baby..." Rose said, urgency in her voice this time.

Winry watched as the woman's eyes seemed to gain a focus. "My baby!" she said, louder.

"I'm sorry!" Winry sobbed.

"Who are you! What do you want with me!" Rose shrieked, jumping out of the chair, and hiding behind it.

"What! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you afraid. My name is Winry. Winry Rockbell,"

"...Winry. I've heard that name before. Was it?... Edward..."

"Ed? You know him?" Winry said, it was a little hard to talk about him. But she wanted to find out the woman's story.

"He... he saved my village once, from a fake prophet. I am from Lior. He wanted- to save us, help us. I... fell hard. He came back, once, to try and save us again. I- don't remember what happened. My baby! What happened to my baby!"

"He's fine, in case you don't remember. Lyra's looking after him,"

"Lyra? You know Lyra?"

"She kidnapped me. She took me away from Edward,"

"It _was_ Edward. He would murmur 'Winry' in his sleep sometimes, when he was in chains,"

"Chains!" Winry shrieked, horrified.

"Yes. I guess I'd better tell you my whole story, then. I wanted my boyfriend back from the dead, and a prophet came and told me he could do it, if I believed in the sun god. I became devout to religion, hoping for my boyfriend back. Then Edward came along... he reminded me so much of... but he wasn't. He pointed out the flaws of the priest I adored, and I saw him for what he really was: just an alchemist with a god complex. Ed brought him down, and I thought it was all for the best,"

"That sounds like Ed. I've known him all my life. He has a problem with watching people suffer, much less at the hands of alchemists,"

"But the priest came back, insisting that the priest we'd known was a fake, and he'd been away for such a long time. The believers and the non-believers started fighting. The military stepped in to stop it. But the one pulling the strings had told some to get rid of all the Liorans they could find. I hid with some children to protect them. They let the children go, in exchange for me. They... raped me, and that was where my baby came from. I still adore him, even if I don't know who his father is. During the struggle, I lost my voice completely,"

Winry gasped. Suddenly, she was feeling much less bad about herself, and feeling more for this girl Rose.

"Edward came back after that, trying to get this to stop, and save the rest of the Liorans from the military. We were at that time following a man named Scar, who promised to protect us,"

"The alchemist killer," Winry hissed. She had been told of him.

"We didn't know that. But he told me his plan. He planned to lure all the militia into the city, and get all of the Liorans out, and use all the militia to make a philosopher's stone. Edward got us out of the city, we were then attacked by two homunculi, I think Ed called them Sloth and Wrath. Anyway, Ed made me get my voice back, out of fear for him. Somewhere along the line, I fell for him,"

Winry's face heated.

"What happened to you, why are you crying?"

"What? Oh, it's nothing, really," she said,

"Don't say it's nothing," Rose said. "You look like how I felt after being raped,"

"Well..."

"Oh!" Rose said. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize-"

"No, that's not it. Although, I suppose it was just as bad, since it was... Edward,"

"Edward?"

"Well, it wasn't really him but..."

"Oh you poor girl. What did he do to you?"

"He- uh- _touched_ me,"

"Oh dear god," Rose gasped. "That's ten times worse, having it be someone you know who's violating you. I'm so sorry, I didn't know how you-"

"It's alright, I guess. It's just good to hear that I'm not the only person this has happened to,"

"You love him, right?" Rose said to Winry, and smiled.

"I- I don't love him!" Winry said, blushing like crazy.

"Right, may the best woman win," she said.

The door opened, and Rose's eyes clouded up again.

"Rose?" Winry asked. "Hello?"

"Rose! There you are! I've been looking for you. Winry, did you have a nice sleep? That's good. Come, Rose. We must get you ready for breakfast,"

Before Winry could even blink, Rose and Lyra had gone.

* * *

TBC

* * *

OOH! DRAMA!

I was thinking about continuing Sloth's explanation of THE TALK in the next chapter, but I need reviews for it!

So, REVIEW!

animebookworm44


	5. Chapter 5

How about another chapter?

It's vacation-- so I have the time. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll finish it over vacation and can move on to other things.

Okay, so after reviewing, I have decided that the scene with Rose in the last chapter was poorly done, and I didn't like it. It wasn't my writing style at all, and I obviously wasn't thinking clearly at that time, so please excuse it. If I have time, I may go back and fix it, but that might bring hassle to all the readers, so I'll leave it up to you.

**Disclaimer:** Standard

Here we go.

* * *

Edward got out of bed early, as he hadn't really slept the night before. He shook his head solemnly, and went to look out the window.

"Major Elric?" a voice asked from behind him. He turned to see his nurse, standing in the doorway with a telephone. "Colonel Mustang is on the phone for you. You are also free to leave at any time," she said. "Just notify me, thank you,"

Ed nodded, coming over and taking the telephone from her hands. "Thank you," he said to the nurse. She left. Then, he said into the receiver, "Hello?"

**Chapter 5**

"Edward, we found her,"

"Winry!" Ed asked, excited.

"No, Gracia. She was in an alley a few blocks away from her house. Badly beaten and bruised,"

Ed sighed, disappointed, yet relieved for Elysia and Gracia. "Where is she?"

"She was admitted to the hospital a few minutes ago. Elysia is there with Hawkeye, I thought you might want to stop by on your way out the door. I'm sure you want to get out of there as soon as possible,"

"Thank you. I'll stop by. Who's on surveillance?"

"Ross and Brosh. Babysitting you again, huh? That's ironic,"

"Oh, please," he said, rolling his eyes. "Behind me?"

"Yes,"

"Thanks... sir," he said. They were being very vague, just in case the line was bugged. Ed hung up the phone, turning and dressing as quickly as was possible. He wanted to catch Gracia and Elysia, and be out of the hospital as soon as he could. Searching for Winry was his priority now, that and keeping the stone secret.

He came out with the telephone, finding the nurse, and making sure she knew he was checking out.

He found out which room Gracia was in from the front desk, apparently Mustang had told them he would be coming to see her. He flew along the corridor.

"Edward!" Elysia chanted, hopping off of Hawkeye's lap to go and give him a hug. "Happy Birthday!"

"I'm sorry your birthday was ruined, Elysia," he whispered to her.

"It was your birthday too! But, it's alright. Now I have mommy back, and you helped. Now all I need is Winry! So go save her!" Elysia said, sounding very much like a military captain.

"Yes ma'am," Edward said, pulling away and saluting her. He picked her up and walked over to the bed, where Gracia seemed to be sleeping soundly, albeit with harsh breaths. "I'm sorry," he said to her. "Maybe if I had said something earlier-"

"Envy would still have done something. Gracia was already in this condition, Edward. There was nothing you could have done. At least by waiting you showed that you were trying to get information from the homunculus while he was pretending to be her. That was smart," Hawkeye said, interrupting.

"But if I'd said something, even just to Mustang earlier, then at least someone would have known something was up. He could have left and tried to go find her, I just-"

"That's in the past now, Edward. All we can do now is make sure Gracia gets better, and try to get back Winry," Hawkeye said.

"Yeah," he said, and bent over toward Gracia. He said in a whisper, "And I'll avenge Hughes's memory. No matter what,"

"Are you leaving now, Edward?" Elysia said sadly from Ed's arms.

"I think I am, Elysia. But know that I'm doing everything I can for you and your mom,"

"And for Winry," Elysia said.

Ed smiled. "Yeah. And for Winry,"

"Good luck then," Hawkeye said.

"Bye!" Elysia said.

"Goodbye," Ed said, walking out the door.

He continued that way until he walked out of the hospital. Looking to his left, he caught a woman's eye. She was tall, with short black hair, but she was wearing sunglasses and reading a magazine. To his right, there was a seemingly bored man in a fishing hat with golden-blonde hair reading a newspaper. He caught Ed's eye too.

Ed smiled, and continued walking.

These two looked at each other, and then followed the boy leaving the hospital.

* * *

Wrath stumbled out of the room, shocked and confused. '_Winry... wants to do THAT with Edward?_' he thought, amazed. He shook his head to clear the awful visuals Sloth had just explained to him.

So THAT was that strange feeling below his stomach.

Creepy.

And he could do that. And that's what Envy was trying to do with Winry, while pretending to be Ed. And that's what Winry's been waiting so long for Ed for. And that's something that Envy couldn't do, but he could. And that's why Winry was so upset when Envy _touched_ her. And he now knew what _touched_ meant. And...

He could go on forever about the stuff that now makes sense.

He still didn't understand why the TALK was called "the Birds and the Bees," though. There weren't even any birds or bees in it. But he understood that it confused a lot of teenagers.

His musings brought him into the dining hall.

"Ah, Wrath there you are. Would you go and get Winry, it's time for breakfast," Lyra said to him, sitting at the head of the table next to Rose.

"Win- ry," Rose said, something jogging in her memory, but her controlled mind wasn't quite sure what.

Wait-- Rose? Didn't he leave her with-?

"Winry!" Wrath said, running all the way upstairs to her room. '_If Envy's here I might just-_' Wrath began to think, but then he paused, as new questions aroused in his brain. He slowed down as he started to think these things.

'_If Envy wants to do that with Winry, does that mean he loves her like Edward does? If I feel that way about Winry, does that mean I love her like Ed does? Do we both love her? And then add Edward- that makes three of us who want to do that with her. Or is it just that emotion that Lust is named after?_'

He started to remember Sloth telling him about this.

---

_"...But Wrath, love goes hand in hand with an emotion called lust,"_

_"What does Lust have to do with this?" Wrath asked._

_"Lust herself has nothing to do with this. I'm talking about what Lust was named after. It's an emotion, and it has to do with... what we just talked about,"_

_Wrath cringed._

_"Lust is wanting to have sexual relations with a person specifically for the pleasure it would bring. You don't know them. You don't love them. But they have a nice body, and you are attracted to them for that reason, not for anything else. You simply want to be with them because it would give you pleasure, and sometimes, you have no regard for your partner's feelings,"_

_"That's stupid," Wrath said. "Why would someone name a person after something like that?"_

---

'_I don't think that Envy cares for Winry at all, so he's just lusting after her. But our kind like him can't feel emotions, right? But I guess I shouldn't be able to feel this either, so Envy must be able to feel an emotion like lust, just like I can. So then, I guess I'm just feeling lust toward Winry, instead of love, like Edward,_'

He found himself outside her door again. He tried the handle, and found it open, with tiny whimpering sounds coming from within.

Thankfully, these whimpers were not to do with Envy forcing himself upon Winry, but rather, Winry crying.

Dang.

The buzzing sound started in his head again. It happened all the time when someone cried, including himself. It was enough to make him hate the sound. Winry was clutching herself again, and now that Wrath knew what was down there, he blushed.

"Er- Winry?" he asked.

Winry gasped, looking up at the door fearfully, until she saw that it was Wrath, and let out the breath she was holding. She quickly let herself go, now aware that Wrath knew what had happened to her, since she knew Sloth was going to give him the talk. She blushed hard, through her tears.

"Heh," Wrath said, blushing himself, and finding himself staring at her.

She blushed again, under his gaze, finding that she'd stopped crying.

"I-I'm sorry," Wrath said, turning away. "I didn't know how big of a deal... it- er... what happened- was until... well, you know,"

"Er- that's alright. I'm just happy you gave me a shoulder,"

"Uh- what?"

"Oh, nothing," she said, understanding that Wrath didn't know the saying, and it would be too odd to try and explain.

"Thank you," she said.

"Well, you're welcome," he said, sitting next to her on the bed, both looking at their knees.

They sat there for a few moments.

"Oh! Master said that if you want breakfast, you should go downstairs. Yeah,"

"I think I'll skip breakfast today, Wrath,"

"Oh? Sure," he said. "I think I'll skip too. I'm not that hungry after..."

Next to him, Winry giggled. "I know what you mean. My grandmother told me about that when Ed was back for automail maintenance, I couldn't hold my hands straight when I was measuring his leg for extensions,"

"You felt that way about him then?"

"I knew I felt a lot for him. At that point, I knew of love, but not sexual relations. I knew that there was this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw him. And when he came home, I felt this humongous relief and happiness that he was alright. I didn't feel this for Alphonse as much as I did for Edward. My only logical explanation was that I was in love with him. And then my grandmother explained the whole... sex thing. At first, I was ashamed about feeling that way for Edward. But soon, I realized that I really wanted that with him, and began to want it more and more. As much as the thing that happened last night hurt me, it's making me want it with him more, and sooner. Just in case something like that happens again,"

"...Wow. Nice speech," Wrath said, smiling. He fell back on the bed, sighing. Winry joined him a moment later. "You've felt that for a long time, haven't you?"

"It only grows, never diminishes. Although, I can't get the pictures of Edward... doing that to me... out of my head. I don't know if I could... trust him with me, if it happened again. It... hurt... what he did to me. I wouldn't be able to think of anything else, and it would... get in the way. Even if I know that it wasn't Edward last night, just the picture... it's enough to haunt me for the rest of my life,"

"If it helps... I hope you're able to tell him what you feel, and be able to have that with him,"

"... Thanks, Wrath,"

* * *

Edward was depressed when he came back to the dorms. The day had been so uneventful, that he had almost tried begging GOD for something to happen. And he didn't even believe in God!

However much he had hoped a homunculus would approach him today, he felt a little stupid that he would expect them to make a move this early. Of course they would give him time to think over what he would do, in case they approached him with a bargain.

Of course this presented a problem.

The stone.

His musings were interrupted by the door opening, and the woman from the morning, still in her sunglasses, walked in.

"Nothing," she said.

"That's alright. I shouldn't have expected them to act so soon," Ed said. "Where's Brosh?"

"He should be here in a minute," Maria Ross said, taking off her sunglasses and tossing them on the bed. "We didn't want to walk in together, just in case there are some people watching the building, homunculi or other,"

"Good planning," Ed said. And as he said it, Denny Brosh walked in.

"Nothing," Brosh said.

"Yeah, I figured," Ed said. "Well, we tried. I don't expect we'll get anything tomorrow, either. Why should they act early when they have the chance to drive me crazy with thinking about all the possibilities of things they could be doing to her? They'll wait,"

Ross nodded. "Do you know what they want? Why they're doing this?"

"Er-" Edward didn't know whether to tell them or not. They could be helpful getting information... No, it was too risky. He only told a few people, and one of them was attacked. The homunculi have a way of finding the people he didn't want to be found. "No," he answered.

"Oh. I thought you might have some idea, seeing as they came after you and not Alphonse. Alphonse is easier to spot, with that suit of armor of his,"

Oh right. They didn't know about that either.

"Right," Ed said, nervously. "Speaking of Alphonse, I should probably call him, y'know touch basis... so..."

"Oh!" Ross said. "Yes, sir," she started to pull Brosh out of the room.

Ed laughed, and then walked to the phone, dialing quickly the number to the Rockbell's.

"Rockbell's Automail! How may I help you!" Ed groaned. He could practically hear the sparkles emanating from Armstrong on the other line.

"Hi, Major. Can I talk to my brother?"

"Edward Elric! Is that you? Of course! Hold on one moment, I shall go and get him," there was a little fumbling on the phone before the cheery voice of Alphonse came over the line.

"Hi, brother!" he said happily. "How are you?" he then asked, in a more serious tone.

"I could be better-"

"Are you out of the hospital, yet? How are your wounds? Have you got any leads on finding... her?"

"I'm fine Alphonse. It's nothing compared to some of the others who came out of that battle," he said, thinking of Gracia and Elysia. It confused him, though, why Al was being so secretive. Then it clicked. "You didn't tell them," he said.

Alphonse laughed nervously. "Colonel Mustang asked to speak to me, brother! And I figured, why make everybody unhappy and tell them that _she_ was _kidnapped_," he spoke "she" and "kidnapped" in hushed tones into the receiver.

"Alphonse! The reason the Colonel called at all was to tell Pinako! Didn't he tell you that?" Ed said, holding a hand to his head.

"Well... yes, but... no... and- I wanted to break it to her gently. She's an old woman,"

"There is nothing old about that woman. She can take anything anyone dishes out, and you know it. I suggest you tell her soon, Alphonse, that way she won't get angrier at you for keeping it secret for so long. Who knows, you may even get your first wrench-to-the-head,"

Alphonse gulped audibly. "Er- right," he replied. "Hey! Why don't _you_ tell her! I mean, _you're_ not in danger of getting hit with a wrench, _you're_ all the way in Central! She can't throw that far!"

"Alphonse! I'd prefer Pinako not get any madder at me than she should for me letting Winry get kidnapped. I think that's grounds for several hits with a wrench on its own, never mind accompanied by your withholding of information,"

"Darn," he heard Alphonse curse softly. He smiled.

"Good Luck, Alphonse. I'll call back when I get some information. If you haven't told Pinako by then I'll-"

"Okay, okay, brother! I'll tell her, I promise,"

"Good... and Al?... Be careful,"

"Of course, brother,"

Ed hung up and leaned back onto the bed. Then he removed Ross' sunglasses from the mattress which still happened to be sitting there, from her abrupt departure. He sighed.

Then, he got up and left the building.

* * *

Wrath watched as Winry's sobs died down, and she actually started to sleep relatively-peacefully. Today had not been a good day for her. Being honest, he didn't want to relive the day either (it was _that_ bad), so he had just settled for watching her sleep.

It was rather entertaining, watching someone sleep. Winry had told him that when Ed came home, she would sneak into his room at night and watch him sleep, offering comfort only when he had his nightmares. Before now, Wrath didn't understand why someone would want to watch someone else sleep, but now he understood.

He happened to have learned a lot of things in the past few days.

He watched her as her chest expanded and contracted, her mouth opening and closing slightly in perfect time with her chest falls. Sleeping really was a work of art.

Why didn't he sleep?

Because he didn't need to. But, he supposed... if he wanted to... he could. There was nothing really stopping him. Beside his lack of a bed.

He could use Winry's bed.

He was here. She was here- but she was asleep. Who would know? As long as he woke up before her... nobody would.

It would only be a short while. Just long enough for him to try "sleeping", and then of course he would wake up, and decide whether he liked it or not. Who knows, it might be something fun to pass the time?

He scooted around to the other side of the bed, watching Winry and making sure that he didn't wake her up. He wouldn't be able to try sleeping, that way. Then, he laid down flat on his back, placing a head on the pillow next to the one Winry was using.

This was comfy.

He closed his eyes, really feeling how good the pillow felt on his head. Now he focused on Winry's chest-mouth thing. He breathed in deeply, opening his mouth slightly, and then let the air go, closing his mouth a little.

He was so focused on this that he didn't even notice when he fell asleep.

* * *

Winry felt cold air on her legs, and tried to pull the covers of the bed back up over her.

What she got was a fist full of nightgown.

The air that blew sent a chill up her skirt, and she woke up almost instantly. It was then that she realized she wasn't in a bed at all, and that she was moving very fast. She looked up, and cried out.

It was Ed... again.

"Let me go!" she shouted, wriggling in his arms.

"Winry! It's me!" Edward said.

"No it's not! Don't tell me you're real! I know you aren't!" She tried slapping him.

"Aw, just shut up, wench, will ya?" Edward asked.

"Ed!" she shouted. He would never talk to her like that. He let her go, and she immediately fell to the cold, hard ground, slamming into a wall which had a shaft traveling up it, as if for an elevator. She stared to cry.

"Stop crying," he ordered her. When she didn't he said, "I said STOP, WENCH!" he slapped her.

She held her cheek, trying to stop crying, lest he hurt her again. "Edward," she whimpered.

He grabbed both of her arms, pinning them to the ground, and climbing on top of her. "C'mon, Winry. Isn't this what you've been waiting for? For me to do this to you? I know you want me, you don't have to hide it anymore," he said, slamming his hips into hers.

Winry couldn't help but groan, and she bit her bottom lip afterward, furious for giving Ed the satisfaction of knowing she somewhat liked what he was doing to her. It was wrong. But... she still wanted this with him.

"Yeah, there you go," he coaxed, moving his hips up and down on hers again.

She cried out and gasped, loving the friction between their bodies, yet hating it at the same time. She bit her lip harder, drawing blood. He lowered his mouth to hers, licking off the blood that was flowing from her bottom lip. He alternated licking her lip and sticking his tongue in her mouth. His hands still held hers above her head, so she was unable to resist anything he did to her.

"Ed, stop!" she screamed.

"You know you don't really want that, Winry," he said, kissing down her neck and licking the valley of her collarbone, traveling down the low neckline of the nightgown. "Let me see you," he said.

"No!" Winry shouted.

"Yes," Edward said, taking one hand away from hers, and using the other to pin both hands.

"No!" she whimpered. "No, please, no,"

Somehow, he turned his arm into his automail knife, and used it to slit the sleeves of her nightgown, pulling them down and exposing her chest. "I took the bottom half last night," he started, "I'll do the top half today,"

He lowered his head to a breast and began sucking, much like with Rose and her baby. Winry cried out again, screaming his name. "EDWARD!"

"Yeah, scream that name out there, wench. No one's gonna hear you. I'm so glad I'm getting here first, it's always been my dream to take anything that was ever Edward's," he said. "Including you,"

"No, no, never!" Winry said. "WRATH! HELP ME!"

* * *

Wrath awoke suddenly, and immediately wondered what he was doing.

'_Oh yeah,_' he remembered, '_I was trying to sleep. It was kinda fun,_'

He looked over to make sure that Winry hadn't woken up before he did, and when he found only the empty space where she used to be, his mind jumped to the worst of conclusions.

* * *

Edward strolled around the military base, without really knowing where he was headed or even why he was walking. He found himself in a hallway on the fifth floor of the building, passing by the staircase that went down to the floor of Mustang's office.

'_Wait- that would make this the Fuhrer's floor,_' Ed realized. '_And the Fuhrer's not here, which would make this the perfect time for an information hunt,_' he thought sneakily.

He easily made it to Fuhrer's office from the position where he was. He was surprised at the lack of security around the place. Homunculi could be overconfident too, Edward surmised. He then used alchemy to open the door, careful not to set off any triggers of traps and the like. He then alchemized the room, neutralizing any traps that were in there. From the lack of security outside, Edward was surprised at the amount of traps located in the room.

Most of them were centralized around a bookcase over to his left. He came over to the bookcase, looking at it.

There didn't seem to be anything special about it. It was full of books, the same as all the bookcases that made up the walls of the room. A quick browse of the books on it didn't turn up anything special that couldn't be found in a library. All in all, it was just a bookcase.

But then, why was it so heavily guarded?

'_Could there be something behind it?_' Edward wondered. '_Yeah right. "Maybe it's an elevator to an underground city!"_' Alphonse's overexcited voice sounded in his head. Alphonse always did have an overactive imagination. Edward shook his head, to clear it.

If he was here, he was going to spend time on something important, not what happened to be behind a certain bookcase in the Fuhrer's office.

* * *

"ENVY!" Wrath shouted, running along the streets, trying to find Winry. "IF YOU TOUCH HER-"

"You'll what?" came a voice from behind him. Wrath turned to see Edward, who immediately glowed and turned back to Envy.

"What did you do with her?" Wrath asked through clenched teeth.

"Jeez, kid. Don't get so bugged, she's right back there," Envy said, pointing to a street just behind the building Wrath was standing in front of. He then jumped onto the roof of a nearby building.

Wrath turned down the street, immediately recognizing that it was the road to the elevator shaft that led to the Fuhrer's office. He ran along it, shouting Winry's name.

He noticed he was coming to the end of the street when he saw her. Her back was to him, and he noticed that the top of her nightgown had been pulled down, exposing her chest to anyone who wanted to look. When he realized this, Wrath felt the feeling down below his stomach again, even though he couldn't see her chest.

How had it felt, doing that with her? Envy had done it. How had it felt? He couldn't help but be a little curious, not to mention that he was male, and fully so. What does a woman's chest look like? He stopped himself. He would end up just as bad as Envy if he kept going.

And he knew how much that would hurt Winry.

He came upon her from the back, just now seeing her shiver and shake with sobs.

"Winry..." he said, trailing off.

Winry straightened, alarmed, and turned quickly, pulling the top of the nightgown back up to cover her chest. When she saw Wrath, she only started to cry harder, and threw herself in his arms.

"Winry... did he-"

"No... but he said... next time..."

"Don't worry, Winry. There won't be a next time," Wrath said. He would make sure of that. He would make sure that Winry's virginity was only given to Edward, the real Edward.

He was beginning to think that sleeping wasn't as good as he'd thought it was.

* * *

Ed cursed. There was nothing in this office that would implicate the Fuhrer was a homunculus and was involved in anything illegal. Not only that, but there wasn't even anything suspicious at all in this office.

But there had to be _something_! Nobody can be _that_ good.

Just that bookcase...

He walked up to it again, glancing at the clock as he did so, and noting it was well past midnight. He turned to the case again, running his eyes along the books once more to the sconces that framed either side.

He glared at it.

Then, he heard shuffling noises in the hall. Who would be here at this time of night? Well, besides him, of course. He quickly ran to the filing cabinets, alchemizing another one next to them, and around him as a hiding spot.

The footsteps passed, paused, and then went back the way they had come. Ed let out the breath he was holding, righting the file cabinets.

He paused one more time by that bookcase, and then moved toward the door. Someone else could come.

He re-alchemized the room, so that all the traps worked again, and jumped out the window onto the roof of the second floor that extended out to form an extra wing.

But he didn't feel like going back to bed yet.

* * *

Wrath stayed with Winry, letting her cry on him, until she fell asleep.

Immediately after checking the area, he had brought her back to her bedroom. And now she was here, softly sleeping on him.

He pushed her over, onto the pillow, and picked up the covers and placed them over her. She had been through too much, and was utterly exhausted.

After doing that, Wrath got up and left.

He was going to see Edward.

That is, after he went and got mommy to watch Winry for any sign of Envy.

* * *

TBC

* * *

There it is, another chapter.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING

I would much appreciate it if you would REVIEW again.

I would also like to say that I liked the end of this chapter significantly better than the last one, and I am still disappointed in it. I also wanted to remind you that if you want me to change it, REVIEW!.

animebookworm44


	6. Chapter 6

Well, thank you for all the nice REVIEWS!

They were really well appreciated, and I hope that everyone who reviewed last time reviews again.

I also hope the story is getting more exciting for you people.

**Disclaimer:** Standard

Off we go!

* * *

Ed walked away from the military base. After almost being caught in the Fuhrer's office, he decided to get as far away from the place as possible. So, with a nod to the guards on duty at the gate, he walked out into Central.

He started walking toward his favorite coffee house, knowing that they wouldn't be open at this time of night, but rather because it was just habit. There was a park across the street from the coffee house. He could sit there and stare at the fountain for hours, until he felt like going back.

There was just something keeping him outside tonight.

**Chapter 6

* * *

**

Wrath looked around once before starting the walk up the pathway to the staircase that came out in a church in southern Central. Who would have guessed that there was a pathway to an alchemically-affected underground city-- in a church?

I know it wouldn't have been my first guess.

Wrath looked back toward the building Master was occupying, where he'd just left Winry with Mommy.

A new determination set within him as he started up the dark staircase.

He was on a mission now.

Yes, he was going to bargain with the Fullmetal Alchemist.

* * *

Edward sat with a sigh on the bench nearest the fountain. The area was covered with lots of trees and other greenery, providing privacy to any man or couple walking the park, or doing other things.

He was actually surprised. There were a few other couples out here, he'd walked past them on his way to the fountain. One was near the small pond that reflected the moonlight. One was on a park bench, just sitting there, watching the birds and squirrels that happened to come by. The last was in a clearing, doing some things that shouldn't be done in public.

When he had Winry back, this would be a nice place to come.

If, that is, she still liked him- unless, that is, she never liked him at all, of which Edward never was aware. He wasn't aware that she ever liked him either. There was also the possibility that she didn't like him, or not like him, but that she just thought of them as friends, which might have been even more heartbreaking than if she just said she hated him.

He knew he liked her. That's what made it so hard to leave every time he had to, after coming back and being hit with a wrench numerous times for the shape of his automail. Automail maintenance and emergency visits always troubled him.

Lately, though, it had been getting even harder. Winry's hands would shake whenever she started to measure his leg. Her trembling would always hit him in a certain spot, and then, he would have to work hard to contain himself from lunging at her, telling her how he felt about her, and kissing her senseless. Thankfully, he only had to get himself measured once per visit.

He shook his head.

These thoughts always plagued him. It was rather annoying, actually.

He lay down on the bench, closing his eyes in a perfect moment of vulnerability for anyone who might attack.

And of course, someone did.

* * *

Winry awakened in the middle of the night, under the care of Mrs. Elric. It immediately brought her back to the old days, when Trisha would take care of her when she was sick because her grandmother had a shop to run, and... well, she had no parents. Back when Al was-- that's an awful thing to think. When both brothers were still blissfully unaware of the dangers of alchemy-- when they were untouched by metal and the harsh reality they were now subject to. Back when she... when she could love Ed.

That's an awful thing to think, too.

It wasn't that she didn't love him anymore. After all, her love had taken long to accumulate, it couldn't just be broken over a day or two. But the impact of the incidents wasn't having the best effect on her.

Who could know if the real Edward wouldn't do that to her if she told him her feelings?

No! Of course he wouldn't do that. Edward wouldn't rape anyone! Especially not her... right?

Right?

Winry started to sob, making her pillow wet. "How could he do this to me?" she murmured into her pillow, which muffled the sound.

* * *

The shadow broke from the bushes, scaring some of the wildlife away. Edward swiveled, falling off the bench and into a defensive position. His eyes scanned the area for the shadow, aware of the slightest movement around him.

But a large pressure flattened against his back, and something sharp jammed against his throat.

Why had he been so stupid to come on a walk alone?

"Hello, Fullmetal," a voice whispered in his ear.

"Wrath," Edward said, his voice filled with hate.

"Now listen up, pipsqueak because if you don't listen to me the first time, I'm not going to repeat myself," Wrath hissed into Ed's ear.

"What are you here for Wrath?" Ed asked, his hands grasping the arm Wrath had around his throat. "To gloat? To show me up? To tell me what you're doing to Winry? If you hurt her I swear I'll-"

"I'm here of my own free will- and because of Winry,"

Ed's head swam. Wrath wasn't here because someone had ordered him to be? He had come on his own.

"Okay, Fullmetal. For the sake of negotiation, in three seconds I'm going to let go of you. If you attack me then, I'll just leave and you'll have no chance of getting Winry back,"

"Like I have a chance now?" Ed asked.

"That's why I'm here," Wrath said, letting go of the Fullmetal Alchemist, and pushing him onto the bench he had just been lying on.

Ed rubbed his throat. "What do you want,"

"I'm here to bargain. No one sent me here. I'm doing this on my own, but don't go and think I'm charitable or a good guy or anything!"

"I never would," Ed said. "How could I? You kidnapped my best friend,"

"Is that all she is to you?" Wrath asked, suddenly getting nervous. What if he was wrong, and Ed really didn't like Winry as much as she liked him. This whole thing could cave!

"Like I'd tell you if she wasn't?" Ed said sarcastically.

No, he had to go ahead with this. For Winry, for himself.

"Back to my proposition. I will get Winry and bring her to you. In exchange, you have to go and give me all the information you have on the philosopher's stone: how to use it, how to make it, and even where the one you made is hidden,"

"WHAT?" Ed shouted.

"I will be the only one who knows this information. I will choose what to tell and not to tell to the Master. The information will be safe, buried with me if it has to be. We will have our information, and you shall have your Winry,"

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"That's the thing. You don't. But I don't know whether to trust you either. I won't know if the information you give me is false,"

Ed nodded, trying to figure out the best way to go about this. Believe him, tell him the truth, and risk the enemy getting their hands on the philosopher's stone? Believe him, lie to him, and risk Winry's life? Don't believe him, and never see Winry again? The possible outcomes of the situation were many and great.

"However, I'll tell you this. On my honor, which may or may not mean anything to you, the person I bring tomorrow will be the real Winry,"

"Alright. But how do I know you're you, and you're not Envy yourself?"

"You don't. But if you do believe I'm Wrath, come to the bridge on the South side of town tomorrow night. Meet me under the bridge, that's where she'll be," he turned to leave.

"Wrath- wait!... You haven't hurt her, right?"

"... I haven't," Wrath said. Ed breathed a sigh of relief. "But I can't say the same for some other homunculi. You may find she's been broken, Ed. But I think you're the one to fix her,"

He shot into the air with that statement, bouncing from tree to tree, the quickest form of getting away. Ed stared after him, unsure of whether to believe him, and hoping against hope that nothing was wrong.

* * *

Wrath got back to the residence in due time. He hoped no one beside his mother had noticed his absence, otherwise they may find out what he's doing.

Of course, everything would work out fine! After all, they'll have the philosopher's stone after this, and Envy would no longer be able to get to Winry to do those things to her. She would be safe, and then they'd all the able to be human.

Why did he want to be human anyway? His master had told him he wanted to be human, but had she ever really told him why? Was there any credible reason why he should want to be human? He can do all the things they do. He can age, he can eat, he can even be sexually active! But he can also do MORE than that. He can't die, he can't be hurt, he can transform himself for protection. Humans are pathetic weaklings! Their sense can be blocked by emotions...

Emotions...

There was something that troubled him about that word. Mommy said lust was an emotion, and he could feel that. Fear was an emotion, that sometimes plagued him. And what of disgust? Disgust at Envy for doing... things to Winry when she so obviously didn't want him to.

But, master says homunculi aren't supposed to have emotion.

Why then did he feel all these things? Was that the only thing being human was about? Was that really the reason Lust wanted to be human? He could feel all of those already.

What was the point!

"There must be a point!" Wrath shouted, opening the door to Winry's room.

She squeaked, hiding herself up in a pillow. Maybe she thought he was Envy come back to finally do the deed to her. Maybe she thought he wouldn't see her crying if she tried to hide herself.

"You should go to sleep, Winry," Wrath said.

"I- I- I can't! I- I couldn't! Not without-- he could come back! I won't take it Wrath, I just won't!" she sobbed into her pillow.

"You can go to sleep now. I promise he won't come back," Wrath said. "I'm going to stay up and make sure of it. Don't worry, Winry, you'll be back with Ed in no time at all,"

"But I-" she started, then stopped.

"You what?" Wrath asked.

"I don't know if I can- can trust Ed anymore. How can I know what's real and what's not? I don't want to go back with Ed if it means _that_ will happen to me. I won't be able to tell the difference between the real Ed and the fake one! And it wouldn't... it wouldn't be fair to the real Ed. Wrath... I don't know..."

"Don't know what?"

"I don't know... if I can love him anymore,"

* * *

Ed thought about his course of action all the way back to the base.

He had nothing really to lose by going. He even had the option of getting Winry back. It's just the tradeoff... they may not like the information they get. If that happens- it could be anyone's guess what happened to Winry. Would they torture her until he told them what they wanted to hear? He wouldn't let that happen, under any circumstances.

But if they knew the truth... heck- his brother didn't even know the truth! But it wasn't that hard to keep it from him, he was unconscious and had lost his memory anyway, no matter if he saw: he wouldn't have remembered.

Colonel Mustang didn't know the truth, Riza Hawkeye didn't, none of the rest of the officers did (they were still kept in the dark about their return to their bodies).

Winry didn't know...

If he told her- would she hate him? Would she just not care? He didn't know what the possible outcome of the situation would be. He hadn't known when he'd done it. If he married Winry... that's a funny thought... if he married Winry, and had children with her, what would it mean for them? It would obviously do something to them, but who knew what!

It hurt to think about it like that. If he married Winry, he may not be able to have children with her because of it.

Aw dang it all.

He shouldn't even be thinking of their married life right now, because she was in for certain danger. Her life was on the line, and all he could think about was having children with her!

There would BE no children if he didn't get her back.

There would be no Winry...

He inserted the key to the dorm into the lock, turning the doorknob, and entering his bedroom. He quickly sat down on the bed. Taking his shoes off, he contemplated skipping the 9:00 report he was supposed to give Mustang on his success today. He would certainly need all the sleep he could get. Once he was up tomorrow, he was up until he had Winry back safely. Nine was too early of a time to give a report anyway!

But if he didn't go, Mustang would think something was up. He'd come over to the dorm (probably to escape paperwork) and get him up anyway. And then- he'd ask questions, which he would have to answer in lies. And then the Colonel would know he was lying, and he'd ask what really happened.

But even if that did happen, Ed would have to refrain from telling the truth.

So Ed purposefully forgot to set his alarm clock, and fell asleep, hoping that he himself wouldn't wake up before noon, so that he wouldn't have to lie, but still wouldn't be telling the complete truth.

* * *

Despite all of his precautions, Ed still woke up before noon. It was 11 o'clock, but no matter, he could still tell Mustang that he'd forgotten to set his alarm clock, and slept in past the report time.

Grabbing his infamous red jacket, he wandered out the door and down the dorm hall, until he met Maria Ross at the bottom of the steps.

"You do realize that this is a guy's dorm, right?" he said in greeting.

"I am fully aware of that, sir," she said in defense. "And it is not my problem if Colonel Mustang orders me to wait for you so we can begin the day's surveillance,"

Oh right, the surveillance.

It shouldn't pose much of a problem, his meeting with Wrath would be way past the time when he was going to be surveyed by Ross and Brosh, so the momentary jolt of panic ebbed away almost instantly.

"To be honest, sir, I believe the Colonel was a bit startled when you weren't there for the nine report, seeing as you are almost always the first one up in the morning,"

"Yeah? Well... I kinda forgot to set my alarm, and I really needed the sleep. I didn't get to bed until after two, I was still up planning strategies," Not a complete lie, and he said it in a tone that would make her believe he was extremely embarrassed to be telling her this, therefore making her believe it was the truth.

"I see, sir. And I know the feeling," she said with a smile, as they walked out of the dorm and toward Mustang's office.

They walked in silence, into the building and up the stairs, then Ross said suddenly:

"What do you think, sir?"

"About what?" Ed said, startled at her question, and its sudden-ness.

"The homunculi. What do you think their next move will be. You said you were strategizing, what did you plan?" she clarified.

"Oh..." Ed said. He hadn't been prepared for this question. He already knew what the move was, since it had already happened, but would he let the Lieutenant know that? Here goes, "I think they will do one of two things. They will either confront me and try to bargain, or attack me. The latter is more likely. It would be very out of character for the homunculi to decide to be friendly and offer a bargain, and more like them to try and take what they want by force, having it all and leaving nothing,"

Right, a lie, but it would keep suspicion about what really happened away, and it could possibly keep Ross and Brosh out of danger. Although, had she asked him this yesterday, this was what he would have answered.

"Is that what you really think, sir?" she asked.

"What? Of course it's what I really think! Why would I have told you if it wasn't what I thought!" Ed said.

She didn't respond, opening the door to Mustang's office instead.

"Fullmetal?" Mustang asked.

"Colonel," Ed said.

Mustang paused for a moment, as if expecting Ed to say more. When Ed didn't say anything, he continued with, "And why didn't you make our 9:00 report time, Ed?"

"My alarm clock sir, it's broken," he said. Maria looked at him sharply. Ed wondered if she took the bait. By using this little lie, he was more likely to get Maria to believe what he said earlier was the truth. He glanced at her, their eyes meeting.

She winked.

"Fine, Fullmetal," Mustang said, unaware of the exchange between the two, as he had turned his chair to face the window. "And did you have anything to report anyway?" he continued.

"No, sir," Ed said. "Ross and Brosh flanked me the whole time, there were no followers, nor hostilities. I hope today will be more eventful,"

"So do I, and everyone else connected with Miss Rockbell's kidnapping," Mustang said, turning back toward him and picking up his pen. His eyes looked sorrowfully at the large pile of papers on the left side of his desk, awaiting signatures. "You're free to go," he said.

As they were leaving, Ed saw Mustang furiously start to sort through the papers, signing them as rapidly as possible and starting to shout obscenities at his pen and the mounting paperwork. Ed passed Hawkeye making her way back to the office. He saw her sigh when she got to the doorway, and had seen Mustang and the papers.

* * *

"Well?" someone asked over the telephone.

"The guards confirmed it, sir. Fullmetal left here really late last night, or rather really early yesterday morning, and didn't get back until almost two hours after that," a woman spoke into the telephone receiver in a booth just outside a cafe in Central.

She heard the figure on the other end of the line sigh. "I guess we have no choice then," he said.

"What should we do?" she asked.

"Follow him. We have no other alternative,"

* * *

Ed sighed as he fell back onto his bed after another restless day of being out in the city. Fortunately, he had enough time during the day to check out the bridge that Wrath had told him about the previous night. He knew where he had to meet the homunculus. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything particularly remarkable about the area. There was no special reason why Wrath would specify that as the meeting place. It was near a church for goodness sake! Churches were almost in a different world from alchemy, and alchemists themselves. Why would Wrath choose someplace near a church...

Before he could ponder further, Brosh entered the room, Ross trailing almost right behind him. He sat up.

"Nothing?" he asked, acting like he was disappointed.

"Nothing," they said simultaneously.

"Dang! There must be another way to get them to confront me!" Ed said, falling back onto the bed.

"Well who knows, we may have better luck tomorrow," Brosh said, walking backward toward the door.

"I agree, sir, we can't give up on this yet," Maria said. Brosh held the door open, and Maria stepped out. "Tomorrow, sir," she said in cordiality.

Ed closed the door behind them. It was only a few hours until midnight.

* * *

Wrath looked out into the hall before he picked Winry up. She was sound asleep, and that was how she had spent most of the day. She slept off all of her worries and cares, along with the deep sadness and emotions of the previous night. But tonight was it, the night Wrath would take Winry back to Ed. He was slightly disturbed by her earlier comments about not loving him anymore, but he knew that wasn't true. She still loved him, he could tell, even if she couldn't.

He picked her up off the bed bridal-style. She had changed into a new nightgown, one whose sleeves weren't ripped. Her hair was down, and slightly messy because she hadn't brushed it all day.

He pushed her door open with his foot, nimbly clearing the hallway and the stairs before he came to the large front doors of their residence. Here, he had to place her down in order to get the door open.

He was going as quickly as possible, firstly so he wouldn't disturb Winry, and secondly so he wouldn't attract attention from any of the other occupants of the building. If Master of Envy found out what he was doing...

He closed the large doors, again with his foot. From there, he ran quickly along the streets, hopping up hills and streets to get to the pathway up to the church where the entrance to the underground city was hidden in the altar. The pathway was high above the city, and once at the opening to it, he looked around again, trying to spot anyone who might be following him. He didn't see anything.

He walked quickly up the darkened steps with the girl in his arms. He tripped once, finding his balance almost immediately, but Winry stirred and he was afraid she would awaken. But she didn't, which was lucky for him. There was no way to tell how she would react to their situation. And so, he was better safe with her asleep than sorry with her awake.

At the top, he used brute strength to force the altar rock from its resting place, having placed Winry on the ground. Once the stone was free, he picked her up again. He sprinted down the center isle of the church, opened the doors, and stepped out into the cold night air. Winry shivered in his arms, it had been a while since she'd felt a breeze, having been underground for a few days.

To be safe, Wrath crossed right and away from the bridge and ducked around the church, so that if anyone spotted him, they would thing he was coming down the street that adorned the church's left side. Once out of there, he ran to the bridge, stopping just short of it and running down the steep hill that led to the pathway along the river. He followed the pathway to beneath the bridge and stood there.

It was a minute to midnight.

* * *

Ed raced down the steep incline that flanked the river on both sides. He'd crossed the bridge to the side nearest the church (Wrath would of course pick this side, it insured that Ed would have to run up the hill and across the bridge before he came anywhere near someone who might help). He skidded to a stop near the pathway that ran along the water, taking it and going under the bridge. He could see Wrath was already there.

"Wrath," Ed gulped. He was nervous. They might not like what they heard.

"Edward. So here's how this is going to go down. I'm going to cross ten paces in front of me, and place Winry on the ground. Then I'm going to step back ten paces. This places her right in the middle of us. Once she's there, you're going to tell me all you know about the philosopher's stone,"

All thoughts of betrayal sank at the sight of Winry. He just knew it was really her. There were tear streaks on her cheeks. She had been crying. Wrath did say that the other homunculi had been doing things to her. What sort of things...

He was startled from his thoughts as Wrath started moving toward him. The homunculus counted from 10 back to one, counting his paces.

"3...2...1," he softly placed Winry on the ground, tucking a stray hair behind her ear before he stood upright again. "Okay Fullmetal, now I'm going to back up. If you make any movements toward her, I'll hurt you, and her,"

Edward watched silent and unmoving as Wrath stepped backward. He could feel time stop around the area, and except for the occasional chilled breeze, there was no reason to believe that time hadn't stopped. Their bated breath made the moment last forever.

"2...1. Are you ready, pipsqueak?"

"You're shorter than I am, Wrath. Who are you calling pipsqueak?"

Wrath smirked. "Just tell me all you know,"

"Right," Edward paused, as if contemplating his choice of words. He had, in fact, been contemplating all day the words that he would say to Wrath, but none seemed right enough.

So he started at the beginning.

"The philosopher's stone is a small rock looking like a red, glass-like substance. It's main usage is to amplify alchemical reactions-"

"I already know all that. You sound like some children's story! Get on with the good stuff!" Wrath urged.

Ed gritted his teeth, but held back from saying anything provocative. "The stone gets its power from the souls contained within it. Even it, a scientific miracle, doesn't last forever. Within each of us lies part of a thing called "the Gate". Do you remember it, Wrath?"

At the homunculus' widened expression, Ed guessed that was a yes.

"It's the border between this world and the next. Whenever a transmutation is performed in this world, part of a soul is taken from inside the Gate and used as energy for the reaction. The philosopher's stone is that energy harnessed into a hardened, physical, useable form. But as with all alchemy, the stone comes with a price. We can't use strictly souls from the Gate to obtain a philosopher's stone, so people like Scar go around killing people, and taking their souls, implanting them into a transmutation circle that is meant to hold them for further use. Get enough souls, you get a philosopher's stone,"

Wrath's expression hardened.

"And that's how to make a philosopher's stone. The transmutation circle for holding the souls is complex, though. And even after you've obtained it, there is a further sacrifice. That's the general way. But there is another, and this is the way I chose. As you know, Alphonse was transformed into a container for holding the souls of those to be sacrificed for the stone by Scar upon his deathbed. So I had all the souls still there. I transferred the transmutation circle from Alphonse onto another object, which was tricky in and of itself. Even then, Al's mind and soul went back to the Gate. But I knew what I was doing. See this hand?"

He held up his left hand, the one on the arm that had remained flesh throughout their entire journey.

"It's new. I cut it off and put it in the new container for the philosopher's stone. My blood, to complete the transaction. I then activated the circle, which left me with the stone. I created a new body for Alphonse, after pulling parts of his old one out of the Gate with the stone. I then attached his soul and mind to it. They weren't too far in, unlike his body. With that done, I held the stone to my stump. It shone brilliantly, and a new hand formed. Then there was a searing pain in my shoulder, and I noticed I'd started to grow extra skin around it. It reached to cover my automail, dissolving the metal beneath it and using the electrical signals from the wires to reattach nerves. I pulled out my automail leg before the skin started to stretch there,"

Wrath looked at him horridly.

"So I think that's the answer to your third and final question,"

At Wrath's blank look, Ed clarified.

"The philosopher's stone I made... it's inside me,"

* * *

TBC

* * *

HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES!

Hehe, good chapter, ne?

REVIEW PLEASE!

animebookworm44


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, so I thought I had a crisis because I couldn't find this chapter's draft. And then I realized I hadn't written one yet. So anyway, I practically had a heart attack.

**Disclaimer:** Standard

Alright, so here we go, I won't bore you with author's comments anymore, which barely any people read anyway.

* * *

"...What?..." Wrath asked.

"I told you. The philosopher's stone I made, it's inside of me. It feeds off me, and I renew its energy. In exchange I can bypass the laws of equivalency, if there were any such laws to begin with. I know that now. The energy used for alchemy is practically not exchangeable. There is no equivalency there." Ed said, staring at Winry.

**Chapter 7**

On the ground, Winry stirred, rolling over to her side, facing Edward now. His eyes softened.

"Well this won't do," Wrath said. "I can't take you back with me now so you can use the stone," Wrath said. '_Otherwise there wouldn't be anyone to take Winry back and away from Envy,_'

"Please," Edward said. "Please let me just take Winry back and get her to safety. Even if, after that, you want me to come back, I'll understand. Equivalency, right? There are still some things that can be attributed to the law of Equivalent Exchange," he chuckled a little. "Winry would hit me for saying that. Then she'd tell me human emotion and common sense can't be attributed to equivalency. But it's the principle that has guided my life this far, I'm not one to _completely_ give it up now,"

"No, no," Wrath said. He knew Winry would need Ed when she woke up. If she thought he wasn't Envy...

"But, and I'm not saying I trust you, if I could spend a few days with her-- I'd owe you one," Ed said.

"One," Wrath said.

"Five," Ed said.

"Two"

"Four"

"Two"

"Three"

"Fine," Wrath said. "Three. I'll be expecting you back here at midnight in three days, got it?" Wrath said, turning around.

"Er- Wrath?" Ed said. "If you don't mind my asking- why did you do this? Why did you come out here and bargain with me? And what made you decide to let me have a few days with Winry?"

"I don't have to answer to you. You owe me one, remember?"

"Fine," Ed said, for once not pressing further. He ran toward where Winry was laying. He felt her forehead with his right hand, brushing a few strands of hair from her face. He smiled at her. "Thank you," Ed said.

"Just be here in three days, Fullmetal, or I'll come after her again,"

"Right," Ed said, picking Winry up under her back and knees. He cradled her to his chest and started to run. He ran up the hill, and then Wrath could see him no more.

"Hmmmm, I didn't think you'd have the guts to do that, pipsqueak," Someone said behind Wrath. The homunculus turned.

He came face to face with Envy.

"Envy!" Wrath hissed.

"However, now that you've kept your end of that bargain, I'm going after them, and I won't be so nice. You see, it's in the nature of a homunculus to double-cross. And when you have two people you want to capture in the same spot, it's hard not to. You boy, you have too much compassion for your own good, although I admire your bravery at going behind the Master's back just to keep me from raping that girl," Envy said. Then, he jumped high, high enough to make it up to the bridge over Wrath's head.

It was in this moment that Wrath first felt despair. Envy would catch up to Ed. He would capture both Ed and Winry, and then Wrath wouldn't have a decent excuse for master, and then he would be punished, and then Envy would get his hands on Winry all over again.

But no. He would hope.

Wrath turned swiftly and ran up the hill. Sure, he wasn't as fast as Envy, but still.

He could try.

* * *

When she woke up, Winry immediately felt foreign hands on her. She tensed, alerting her carrier to her consciousness.

Winry peeked her eyes open, and saw...

Who else? Ed.

An unrivaled anger flowed through her, as well as a large amount of dread. He was taking her this time. He would rape her, she was sure. She had to get out of here.

"Winry! You're awake!" he said.

"Ed!" she screamed, and slapped him.

Ed held on so she wouldn't fall. This was not very much how he'd pictured her waking up in his arms. His cheek stung badly, but he'd been through worse pain, from Scar, the military, the homunculi.

But he did slow down running, and that was enough for Winry. She wriggled out of his grasp, turning and punching him in the jaw.

"Gah!" Ed shouted, cradling his jaw, which had begun to bleed. "Winry! What the heck!" he shouted.

"No!" she shouted back. "Not this time! You are not taking me, Edward! I won't stand for it! I won't let you rape me!"

"Rape you!" Ed shouted. "Why the heck would I do that!"

"Wrath!" Winry shouted. "Wrath help me!"

"What do you want Wrath for, Winry! He kidnapped you!" Ed said. "I just saved you! What are you, brainwashed or something! Winry, you've only been gone for a few days! You're stronger than that, machine-freak!"

"Don't try using your stupid psychological tricks Edward. Wrath!" Winry shouted.

Edward stepped closer to her, trying to make her see. She kept shouting to Wrath, backing up and sneaking looks over Ed's shoulder into the alleyway behind them. She tried punching him again, but he caught her hand this time. She tried to yank it out of his grasp, but he wouldn't let go. She kept stepping backward, and he kept going with her, until she felt wall behind her back.

"WRATH!" she let out the piercing scream, slapping Ed with the other hand. He caught this one too, and pinned her to the wall. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Winry!" he shouted. "Winry listen to me. You're strong, the strongest girl I know. You can fight this, this brainwashing that Wrath did to you. Winry!" he said, licking his lips out of nervousness and hurt. He let go of her hands, cupping her cheeks instead with both of his. Her hands immediately came up to push him away by the shoulders. But Ed leaned in toward her, and she couldn't get any leverage.

"Winry, Wrath is not your friend. He kidnapped you, and worried the heck out of me. But, I'm not going to fight you, Winry. I'm not. If it came down to the two of us, you'd win, I'd concede. If you really want to go back to Wrath, I'll let you go," he said, in a soft tone.

"No, no, no," Winry murmured her head shaking back and forth as he came closer to her. She looked up, anywhere but his face. The stars twinkled in the dark sky. It must be well into the night.

"Winry, listen. Do you want to go back? Is that what you really, truly want?" His hands were wet now with her tears. "Did you fall in love with him? Because he can't love you, homunculi don't know how to love,"

She was still looking up, up into the bright stars, sobbing her heart out, fighting Ed with all of her being. But something struck her as odd, there was something that was not right.

"But if you truly want to go back to him, there is something I have to say. I like you, I like you a lot, Winry. I've liked you since the day we met, since the day you pushed me into the river, since the day I left you to find the stone,"

She hiccupped, looking back into his face finally, into those golden eyes that said so much.

"I want you to know that I would rather die than see you unhappy, Win. And if you really, truly, deeply, want to go back to Wrath, I'll understand. Well, I may not understand, but I'll certainly let you go. You're everything to me, Win. You and my brother are the most important people in this world. You are, really," he said, and Winry could see his sincerity. "And if you choose to go, there is something I would like to give you,"

He quickly pressed his lips down to hers, taking them off just as briefly. The kiss lasted no time at all.

"I would like nothing better than to say I gave Winry Rockbell my first kiss," Ed said.

Stars. It was stars. They were confusing her. She couldn't see stars when she was with Wrath, and rapist-Edward.

"E- Ed- Edward?" she asked, timidly stuttering.

But in the next moment, his presence was off of her, and on the ground.

"Envy!" someone shouted.

She looked to Edward, he was bleeding. There seemed to be that a bullet had grazed his shoulder. She looked in the other direction; there she spotted Wrath and Envy. Wrath was trying to hold Envy back from attacking Ed, with a transformed arm that was a gun. But why?

"You brought someone with you, Wrath!" Ed spat. "You said it would only be you!"

"I didn't!" Wrath shouted back to him in a strained voice. Envy was struggling against Wrath's hold. "He followed me!"

"Right!" Ed said, clearly sarcastic. "I shouldn't have trusted you!"

Just then, Envy broke away from Wrath. He charged toward Ed, his hand changing into Ed's automail knife-spear.

"Major Elric! Get down!" someone said. There were gunshots behind him as he ducked, and he saw three bullets enter Envy's chest.

"What!" Ed and Wrath shouted simultaneously at the newcomers.

Maria Ross and Denny Brosh came from behind a wall.

"You brought people too! You said it would only be you!" Wrath shouted at Ed.

"I didn't!" Ed shouted back. "They followed me,"

"I am sorry, sir. Our orders from the Colonel were to follow you. Not to interfere, just follow. I couldn't help it though, sir, when you were in danger," Maria Ross said, holstering her gun.

"You were there the whole time!" Ed shouted at her.

"Yes, sir. And I expect we'll talk in the morning about your rendezvous. Right now we have to get you and Miss Rockbell to safety,"

"Aw how touching," someone said. It was Envy.

"What!" Ross said. "Didn't I just shoot you!"

"It'll take more than that to kill me. Know why? I'm a homunculus,"

"An artificial human?" Brosh asked.

"I'm surprised you know that much. I can tell you're not an alchemist,"

"Lieutenant Ross, get Winry to the base," Ed said.

"But sir-" Ross started.

"That's an order, Lieutenant!" Ed shouted.

"With all respect, sir, you will need all the help you can get-" Ross said.

"Now, Lieutenant! Or I will charge insubordination when I get back to base!" Ed said.

Winry looked from one to the other, and back to Envy and Wrath many times during the conversation. At this last comment, she noticed Ross straightened, her eyes sad, and the lieutenant turned to her.

"Miss Rockbell. I have been ordered to take you back to base. If you will follow me," she said, extending a hand.

"Ed!" she said.

"Go, Winry!"

"No Ed, I won't leave you!"

"God, Win, why the heck do you have to be so stubborn sometimes!" he shouted at her.

"Because if I'm not, you'll get such a big head no one in the military will want to talk to you! And if I don't stay- you're liable to rip yourself to pieces, and get hurt, and have to be in the hospital for goodness knows how long! You may not have my automail anymore, Edward- but that doesn't mean I don't care!" she shouted right back.

"Ross," Edward said, indicating Winry.

"You can't just throw me off like some piece of trash Ed, to be forcibly removed!" Winry shouted.

"Winry! GO!" Ed yelled at her. "Ross, I give you permission to use force if necessary,"

"EDWARD!" Winry screamed.

Ross came toward her, Winry tried to run, but she was no match for the soldier.

"IF I HAD MY WRENCH I'D BASH YOU IN THE HEAD EDWARD ELRIC! AND THEN IN THE GRION SO I COULD KNOW NONE OF YOUR SPAWN WOULD EVER WALK THIS EARTH!" Winry shouted in a furious rage as she was slung over Lieutenant Ross' shoulder.

Denny Brosh visibly flinched, knowing that she would have done what she said. Envy stared with wide eyes at her; he didn't know she could be that spunky. Edward had his eyes closed, and although usually a comment like that would make him pale considerably and think about going into the WPP, he didn't even flinch.

"Keep her safe," he whispered to Ross as she passed by him with Winry.

Ross smiled half-heartedly, and of course Winry didn't hear, she was still busy screaming obscenities at Edward and cursing his lineage forevermore. Ed sighed.

"Colonel?" Ross' voice asked behind him.

"I think it's time I got my hands dirty with this case," came the voice of Colonel Roy Mustang. He had come out of the alleyway that Ross and Brosh had come from. As he passed Winry he whispered, "Don't worry, I'll make him come back alive," She heard him, and nodded with tears in her eyes, having finally tired out of screaming.

"Great," Edward said sarcastically, not turning around to see his superior. "Have you been here the whole time, too?"

"No, I came when Ross and Brosh called from a telephone booth a few minutes ago," he said, pulling on his gloves. He came and stood next to Edward. "Brosh, you should go with them. Take the car; we can handle it from here,"

"Sir!" Brosh saluted turning and following Ross.

Ed looked at Mustang.

"What?" Roy asked.

"What, no Hawkeye?" Ed smirked.

"It's the middle of the night, Fullmetal," Roy said, rolling his eyes, as he once again checked his gloves.

"That hasn't stopped you before," Ed said. Roy could practically hear the smirk that was on Ed's face.

"Look," Envy interrupted. "Can we just start the fighting now? All this dialogue is boring me,"

"After you," Mustang said, readying his hand for a snap.

Envy transformed into Ed, bringing out his automail knife. He charged Mustang, letting out a wild scream as he did so. Mustang snapped his fingers, lighting them on fire, and then using the air to light fire to Envy. But that didn't stop his assault. The flaming Envy still charged Mustang. Edward rolled out of the way to get behind the homunculus as Mustang dodged the attack.

Envy then transformed into Basque Gran, his arm becoming the alchemist's cannon. He shot at Mustang and Edward, laughing maniacally. Edward alchemized a wall in front of him as Mustang dove behind some crates.

"Envy! Stop this! We have to get back to Master!" Wrath shouted.

"Please, Wrath!" Envy said, disbelievingly. "If we capture these two, she'll be more than happy with me. And then you'll have to tell her how you lost Winry-"

"And gained the philosopher's stone!" Wrath said.

Mustang looked sharply at Edward, who was looking shamefully at the ground.

"What!" Envy said.

"You heard me. We have to go back so she has time to prepare. We have three days. She will want to know as soon as possible,"

"Dang," Envy cursed. "Fine! You get off easy Flame alchemist, Fullmetal pipsqueak, but don't think things will be so easy for you when you see us next,"

Envy jumped away, up to the top of the building they were next to.

"Three days," Wrath said, looking meaningfully at Ed.

Ed nodded.

Wrath jumped away too, following Envy.

The pants of Roy and Ed were heard for a few moments.

"Edward..." Roy said, in one of those tones that indicated he didn't want to be crossed.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ed said, standing and starting out of the alleyway.

"I'm your superior officer Ed. I asked you a question. Answer it,"

"I can't talk about it," Ed replied.

"Cant... or won't?" Mustang asked. He didn't receive a reply. "They said they're going to take the philosopher's stone in three days. Tell me where it's hidden Ed,"

"No," Ed said.

"This is no longer about just you and your brother. You told them where you hid it- which I can't believe you did, by the way- and they could get their hands on the most powerful alchemical weapon known to man," Mustang tried to persuade Ed as they walked back toward the base. "If you tell me, we can post guards, make sure someone's watching it. They won't be able to get their hands on it,"

"No,"

"Edward. As your superior, I order you to tell me the location of the philosopher's stone,"

"You want to know where it is that badly?" Ed asked.

"Yes,"

"Fine... It's... It's inside..."

"Where, Ed?"

"It's inside..."

* * *

Ed walked into his dorm room feeling mixed emotions. He was angry that Mustang had asked him for the stone, pleased with his lie, and worried terribly about Winry.

"Ed?" came a meek voice from somewhere in the corner.

Ed turned on the lights. "Winry?" he asked.

"Ed! You're alive!" she sobbed, running to him and hugging him with all her might. "Ed- I was- I was so scared. I didn't know anybody there! Except for- for-"

"Wrath?" Ed whispered, feeling her tears on his neck.

"And- and Sloth," she felt Edward tense between her arms.

"Oh," he said.

"And then- I didn't believe it was you! Because- because-..."

"You don't have to talk about it now. As a matter of fact, I think it's better that you don't. Right now, it would be best for you to get some sleep,"

"I'm not sleepy," she said, with a loud yawn. It seemed that she had passed from scared-and-sobbing to delusionally-happy-at-being-rescued-from-mortal-peril.

"Nice try, Win," Ed said, stepping toward the bed. Winry followed his lead.

"But I'm not!" she said. "Kiss me!"

"What?"

"In the alley, you said that you wanted to give me your first kiss. Well that thing in the alley doesn't qualify. That was barely a kiss. So, I want you to kiss me. Kiss me now,"

"No,"

"What! Why!"

"Winry, you're tired and delusional, and don't know what you want. Get sleep,"

"I know exactly what I want," Winry said, swaying from tiredness. "I want you to kiss me!"

Ed sighed. "If I kiss you, will you go to bed?"

"Mhm,"

"And no more of this silly nonsense?"

"Mhm,"

"Fine," Ed said as he sat her on the bed. She lay down onto his pillow, yawning again. They sat for a few moments.

"I'm waiting," Winry said.

'_Dang_' Ed thought. He had hoped she would have fallen asleep when her head hit the pillow to save him. "Here goes," he said, leaning over her.

He briefly pecked her on the cheek. Winry made a contented little noise (which he liked), but she wasn't satisfied.

"On the mouth, silly," she said.

Ed rolled his eyes. How was he going to explain this in the morning to her, when she was back to her senses? He didn't know. But, he leaned down and pecked her on the mouth, anyway.

As soon as his lips touched hers, her hands were behind his neck. It was almost as if she knew he would try to get away with just a brief kiss. When he left her lips, her hands brought his lips crashing back down onto hers. Ed made a little squeaking sound at her abruptness, but when her lips started to move against his, he closed his eyes and simply let her kiss him.

Winry started making noises in the back of her throat, and Ed decided he liked the sound. He began to move his lips with hers, making the sounds come more often and louder. Winry tilted her head to the side, making it easier to kiss him, and her tongue darted out once into Ed's mouth. He squeaked again. She stuck her tongue in again, this time rubbing it against his.

She took her mouth off of his, trying to get air, and fully ready to go back to kissing him. But he pulled away when she tried to go back.

"There, I kissed you," he said, sitting up and then standing.

"Ed!" she said, almost desperately. "Will you- will you sleep next to me tonight?"

Ed stopped and turned to look at her. Her eyes held the look of a lost puppy, scared and alone, reaching out for a friend. He sighed, took off his shoes and sat back down on the bed, where he pulled off his shirt, jacket, and pants. Winry watched him, almost staring, as if memorizing the process by which he undressed.

"I sleep in my boxers," he said, when she didn't say anything.

"I know," she replied. "So?"

"Do you want to sleep with someone who is half-naked?" Ed asked, hoping she'd say no.

"It doesn't bother me. We used to do it when we were children too. Even then you slept in shorts," she shrugged, pulling up the covers and leaving a space for him.

He sighed. There was no way out. Getting up, he turned out the light. Then he scooted under the covers, as far away from Winry as possible. But she immediately curled up to him, finding warmth in him. He blushed solid red. She tucked on of his arms under her head so that it came around to hold her to him. She made contented noises and kissed his neck a few times.

In moments, she was asleep.

'_This is nice,_' Edward thought. Although he would never say it. Never.

* * *

Edward got up in the morning before Winry awakened. He didn't want her to see their position and think he'd done something to her. Knowing her, she'd find a wrench and start smacking him with it. Or worse, carry out her threat from last night.

Maria Ross intercepted him in the hallway before he could make a clean getaway.

"Not you, Elric. We need to talk," she said, sounding like she had more authority than he did.

"I have nothing to talk about, Ross," he said. "And how many times do I have to tell you, this is a guy's dorm,"

"Winry slept here with you last night. You don't tell her this is a guy's dorm," she pointed out.

"Yeah? Well she actually needed me last night," Edward replied. "And I didn't have time to,"

"She needs you now, and here you are trying to sneak out,"

"She's asleep. I'm going to get food,"

"Elric. I heard some things last night that I was not informed about. I want to talk to you about them," she said firmly.

"...Fine," Ed said, taking her into one of the dorm's dens. "We can talk in here, it's safe,"

"First off, where do you get off making an unauthorized deal with the enemy!"

"He approached me, Ross. I wasn't about to turn down possibly my only chance of getting Winry back," Edward said, sitting on a couch. "He also told me not to tell anyone, or bring anyone with me. I wasn't about to jeopardize her safety, not again,"

"What about those things you said, Edward? Are those true? You have a new arm now? Your brother's back? You made a philosopher's stone?"

"I wasn't going to lie to him, Ross. If he found out I'd lied, we all would have been done for,"

"And what about... the location of the philosopher's stone. Is that true too?"

"Yes, it's true,"

"What happened after that? That was when we called Mustang, so I didn't hear it. I want answers Ed, the truth,"

"I took Winry and left,"

"Is that it?"

"Yeah, that's it," Ed lied. He wasn't about to tell her that he was meeting the homunculi again in three days to help them use the stone. Only Mustang knew that. And the Colonel thought he knew where the stone was, when he actually didn't. So if they both collaborated, they could come up with the true story, but he highly doubted that would happen. "Up until you found us in that alley and shot Envy,"

"He is a homunculus, sir?"

"Yes, he's a homunculus," Ed replied.

The door to the den swung open, and Winry entered. "Ed?" she asked, slightly surprised.

"Winry," he said. "I was just going to get up some breakfast when Maria asked to talk to me,"

"Oh," she said, looking down. And uncomfortable silence gripped them.

"If you want," Ed said. "I can take you out for breakfast. And then we can go shopping around Central," Ed offered.

He only had three days with her. He was going to make the best of it.

"Really?" Winry asked, sounding relatively happy.

"Yeah, and you can call your grandmother and talk to Al," Ed said, getting up. "If you'll excuse us, Lieutenant,"

"Certainly, sir," she replied.

Ah young love.

* * *

"Sir?" Maria Ross asked at the entrance to Colonel Mustang's office. From the window, you could see Ed and Winry exiting the base.

"Lieutenant?" Mustang asked, surprised.

"Sir, you ordered me to collect intelligence on Edward. I just came to tell you about it,"

"Sit down, please," he said, indicating a chair. To his right, Hawkeye lifted an eyebrow at him.

"I didn't know someone was spying on Edward," she said to him.

"Well, now you know. Go ahead, Ross,"

"The philosopher's stone, sir, it's located inside-"

"I already know about that piece of information, Ross. Edward told me himself. It is unwise to say it here, but you should know, I have guards looking after it, and it will undoubtedly be safe," Mustang said, cutting her off.

"Very good, sir," she said.

"Please continue, though. I have yet to hear how he made it and such. Hawkeye, will you check the hall and lock the door?"

"Sir," Riza said, following her order.

* * *

TBC

* * *

There you go! Edward has three days with Winry. How will they be spent? And what will happen when Ed meets the homunculi again?

REVIEW!

animebookworm44


	8. Chapter 8

Well, here we have the newest chapter of **the Birthday**

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS! YOU'RE ALL SO WONDERFUL!

Alright, so I have MCAS this week, which won't be fun, but I'll still try to write because they don't usually give us homework during MCAS.

**Disclaimer:** Standard

Off we go!

* * *

Ed and Winry walked to town in silence. She was slightly conservative in her tube top and short-shorts with her overall-jumpsuit over it. Ed wore his black outfit with the red coat.

There was a slight uncomfortableness between them. Winry knew she'd done something, but she couldn't remember what it was that happened. She did, however, remember Ed's _slight_ confession in the alleyway. It couldn't really be called a FULL confession. They were both tired and hungry, and Ed happened to be running away from people who could very easily kill the both of them. Not to mention, he feared losing her back to the homunculi.

And there was still one problem with the whole thing.

Rapist Edward.

**Chapter 8**

Somehow, someway, he'd gotten into her head. No matter how hard she told herself that he wasn't the Edward she stood next to now, she knew there was no way to tell other than instinct. He'd gotten inside her, and for once made her doubt Edward. Before, she was so confident in Edward's abilities and personality. She'd fallen in love with that Edward.

There was nothing there telling her that Ed had changed, as a matter of fact, he seemed almost the same as before her kidnapping. But sometimes, when she snuck a look at him, there would be a flash of the Edward she feared so much.

It was irrational, she knew it.

But it's not her fault really.

As for Edward, he was thinking about something else.

His mind was on the three days he had left to spend with Winry, and further on giving himself up to the homunculi. He didn't know what they would make him do. And if he turned them all to humans, what then? Would they keep him chained up? Would they let him go after he'd done his job? There were too many "what if" possibilities, and it hurt his head to ponder them. Winry's silence unnerved him too. She kept glancing at him, and then quickly glancing away. He also wanted to know what the homunculi did to her.

Perhaps a date for breakfast would bring certain things to light.

"Wanna eat here?" Edward asked. Winry jumped. He was pointing to a small cafe, which happened to be his favorite place to eat. It was rather dark inside, so people left you alone for the most part. There weren't people every which way he went whispering about how he was the Fullmetal Alchemist, and the responsive "short" comments.

"Sure," Winry said, starting up the stairs toward the door. Ed held it open for her, and she went inside.

Today, they had a singer, drummist, and an acoustic-guitarist playing for all the people enjoying the fine coffee and meals. Edward usually didn't mind the entertainment portion of breakfast, or whatever meal he was having, but today is seemed especially unnerving the way the song seemed to mimic the awkwardness between Winry and him.

But it's not like he had control over the music anyway, right?

Winry picked a table in a corner, a nice private area, since all of the other people in the establishment were closer to the band and bobbing their heads to the music. Ed sat immediately across from her, and they both picked up menus.

Ed was only looking at his not to make Winry feel uncomfortable. He had memorized all of the cafe's food only year after he had come to Central. But he wanted an excuse not to talk to her, and looking at a menu seemed to be just that. He peeked at her over the top of his menu. She was biting her lip, as she always did when she was concentrating: on automail or deciding what to eat.

She seemed especially calm today, having just got back from being kidnapped and all, but at the same time, she seemed very nervous and scared. Once again he found himself wondering what the homunculi and their Master did to make such a strong girl become like this. He was going to bash Envy's head in the next time he saw the homunculus. He was so busy inside his head that he didn't notice Winry put down her menu.

"Er- do you know what you want?" he finally asked.

"Yeah. I'll have the breakfast bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich. On a bagel, please. And an orange juice,"

"No problem," Ed said, and he swiftly rose to order his and her food. He walked up to the counter and greeted the cashier.

"In today again, Fullmetal?" she asked, getting a cup from under the sink. She knew what he would order. She was like that.

"Yeah, Loria," he said in a slightly depressed tone.

"Whoa, Ed. I haven't seen you this down since... since your brother decided to run away that one time. Speaking of the suit of armor, where is he? And who's the _girl_ you brought in?" she said teasingly.

"Her? That's Winry. She'll have a b-e-c on a bagel with an oj, by the way," he said. "And Al's at her house, all the way in Resembool,"

"Why is he there, and she here?" Loria asked. "Especially considering that Resembool is half a day's journey from here by train, and you two are practically inseparable?"

"It's the longest story in the world, right now. And still running," Ed said, as Loria turned to make Winry's meal.

"Well then, why are you depressed?" Loria asked. "Girl troubles?"

"Hardly," Ed said, in one of those tones where you couldn't decide whether he was being sarcastic or not. "It has everything to do with that long story that I'm never going to tell you, so you should stop trying to help,"

"But I like your stories, Ed!" Loria said in a faked version of sorrow. "Here you go," she said, handing him the meals. "Tab?" she asked.

Ed nodded.

"Good luck," she said, picking up a rag and starting to wipe down the counter.

Ed walked solemnly back to the table, trying to think of something to say to Winry when he got there. Not having thought of anything by the time he got to the table, he said: "Here,"

"Thanks" she replied, quietly, picking up the sandwich and giving it a sniff before she bit into it. She nodded her head once in approval of the food before she took another bite.

He busied himself with his meal too, and a silence settled between them.

The silence still remained after both had finished their meals and sat staring at their empty plates, waiting for someone to say something.

"Winry?"

"Edward?"

They asked simultaneously.

"You go first," Winry said.

"Right," Ed said, and settled into a moment of silence before he delved into what he was going to say. "Winry, we've been best friends forever, or at least you've been my best friend, and..." he drifted off a moment, trying to gather words. "... And I really didn't want you caught up in the middle of this thing with Al and me. But the thing is, you're in it. You're in it more securely than I wanted you to be in it, and... I know you're suffering. I can understand if you don't want to be friends with me anymore, and want to go home. You've been through a lot, I can tell, in the past few days than you have since your parents died. I want you to know that, even if you decide not to stay here, that you can always talk to me. I know what it's like to go through hard things without someone to talk to about it, and it's not easy. So if you need to talk, I'm here,"

Winry was stunned.

"That's the other thing. If you do decide not to walk out on me right now, I, uh, think it would be best if you told me what happened to you while you were with them. The homunculi, I mean. We may be able to use some of that information to find out where they're hiding and some things we can do to stop them. You'll have to tell someone sooner or later, it has to go on record, but since we are, or were, friends I thought you might like the chance to tell me first. This way, you won't get as emotional telling it the second time to whoever is going to record it,"

Winry was silent for a while. Ed didn't know what to think. On the plus side, she wasn't running straight from the cafe, but she wasn't opening up yet either.

"...Wow, Ed..." she said first. "I think that might have been the longest you've ever talked to me in a while,"

Ed snorted, half a chuckle.

"And I can't believe someone hailed as a prodigy would even stoop to think that their best friend wouldn't want to be friends with them anymore!" Winry said. "What were you thinking, Ed! That I'm some insensitive jerk that goes running away at the first sign of danger, and isolates herself from everybody!"

"Well, maybe I-" Ed said, looking guilty, and cowering as if she was going to hit him with a wrench.

"How can a prodigy be this DUMB!" she said, shaking her head. "Next, I'm not really sure... that I'm quite ready to say what happened to me. Traumatizing events do that to you, right?" she asked, faking a smile. "Of course you wouldn't know what I'm talking about. You always face your problems head on, in ways I never could. You would just come right out and admit what happened to you, and face it. Then you'd take it and turn it into a life lesson,"

"Not always. It took me a while to get over Nina, and the Barry-the-Chopper incident,"

Winry shivered. She'd been kidnapped then too. I guess she hadn't learned the lesson the first time.

"At any rate, I'm not quite ready to go into that. It was very emotional for me. You're right about one thing though, I would prefer to talk to you about it first, before I say it to anyone else,"

"Sure," Ed smiled.

"Now, I thought I saw a new chrome extension unit on the way here. Did you bring your wallet?"

* * *

"I'm regretting ever saying that I'd take you shopping,"

"What, the profitable Fullmetal Alchemist, running out of cash?"

"No, out of arms," Ed said. He happened to be carrying several boxes worth of stuff that Winry had bought that afternoon. They were very filling enough, without any more stuff added onto them.

"What are you too-"

"Don't say it Winry," Ed stopped her before she could get to the "short" comment. "I'm taller than you now, remember?"

"How could I forget! I keep having to look up at you, which is totally weird in and of itself. And for your information, I was going to say 'weak',"

"Weak comments won't work Winry, because you and I both know it's not true. Do you know how many pounds I bench-press a day? Hm?"

The sad thing was, Winry did know, and she also knew that he was right. He wasn't weak, and they did both know it, whereas when he was short, they both knew her jokes were somewhat true. Calling him weak would just be lying to herself, and him.

"Uh, no, actually. I don't pay particular attention to that part of your life," Winry replied (even though she did know), and she eyed a screwdriver in the window next to her.

Ed saw her looking and quickly changed the subject, "Well then, how about we go back to the dorm, and you can call your grandmother and tell her you're alright," he said, then thought, '_And I can drop these off,_'

"Sure," she said, starting to walk back the way they had come.

* * *

"There better be a good explanation for this, Wrath," Lyra said in a very curt tone of voice.

Wrath stood before her, waiting to tell her about his deal with Edward. Envy had just told her that Wrath had let Winry go with the Fullmetal Alchemist, and she was very cross. They stood in Rose's room, the girl gently breast-feeding her child, and being completely oblivious to what was going on.

Wrath shifted uncomfortably.

"Come along, Wrath," Lyra said, getting increasingly angrier. "Out with it. Why did you give Winry to Edward? You know that we had her for a reason, and you just go and give her away! I'm very disappointed in you Wrath. Your mother is displeased too, correct Sloth?"

Wrath gave a helpless look to his "mother" who nodded her agreement to Lyra.

"There, you see? Now tell me why you did it, and it had better be for a good reason,"

"I was getting the Philosopher's stone," Wrath mumbled, although everyone there heard him.

"You were what?" Lyra said, disbelieving.

"I was getting the Philosopher's stone,"

"And how were you doing that? Obviously your plan backfired- since you don't have it with you now," Lyra said, very obviously losing her patience with the homunculus. "We could have done great things to Winry, you realize this. A great many and painful things that would have hurt Edward to his very core,"

"But if you told him you would give up Winry for the Philosopher's stone, he wouldn't have believed you," Wrath said, looking Lyra square in the eye.

"Excuse me?"

"Before I came here, I met Edward. Then, I was young and naive, but Edward was able to see how I truly acted, before there was someone there to influence me and my decisions," Wrath said.

"So?" Lyra objected.

"So, when I come up to him, he's more liable to believe me than you. I'm not saying that he trusts me, because that would be a lie. But because he met me before I met you, it gives my word a certain quality, almost a childish innocence. Ed knows that feeling, from back before his mother died and he didn't have a care. If he had to, he would trust me before he trusted you. That said, I went up to him and told him I'd give him Winry in exchange for the Philosopher's stone. He's bringing it here in... two days now, at midnight,"

There was silence for a moment.

"And?" Lyra said. "That's it?"

"Well, he's going to stay and teach us everything on how to use one, make one, et cetera..." Wrath said, hoping that this was what she was looking for.

"Edward? Coming here? Yes... good, very good Wrath. That was a very good thing you did, although I would have preferred you discuss it with me first, but still... Edward is coming here in two days..."

Lyra turned and began mumbling to herself, presumably making a list of all the things to do before Edward arrived.

"Good job, Wrath," Sloth said, casually and with water-like grace, standing up and leaving the room.

Rose looked up from feeding the baby and watched Sloth leave. For a moment, a light flickered in her eyes, and they gained focus. And then it was gone again, with no trace of ever having been there.

* * *

"Hi, Granny, It's Winry,"

It took Winry and Ed and hour before they were back at the dorms, stopping for little things along the way. It was dark outside. Ed had placed Winry's new things on the bed, and shown Winry where the phone was. Winry had called Pinako immediately.

"Oh, Winry," Pinako said on the other line.

"I... just wanted to tell you that I'm alright," Winry said.

"Well, that's nice, dear. How is your trip to Central going? Was Elysia's party fun?"

Winry was confused.

"_Granny? Is that Ed?- _No, It's Winry- _Can I talk to her! Please_!- Alright, Alphonse, calm down. Here-... Winry? Hi, how are you?" Alphonse said, speaking softly.

"Alphonse? What's happening?" Winry asked, looking at Ed, who looked confusedly back at her.

"Oh, nothing!" Alphonse laughed nervously. "The usual, automail customers, Major Armstrong being sparkly, what's happening with you?"

Ed grabbed the receiver from her hand.

"Alphonse," he hissed. "You didn't TELL HER!"

"Tell who what, brother? Granny Pinako's right here if you want to tell her something," Alphonse said.

"No, no. I don't want to talk to Granny. I want to YELL at YOU!" Ed shouted into the receiver. Winry covered her ears and took a few steps back. Ed was slightly scaring her, but this time it was a part of Ed she knew well. "You said you'd tell her!"

"What are you talking about, brother? I didn't say anything," Alphonse said.

"If there's one thing you aren't, Al, it's a good liar," Ed seethed.

"I'm sorry, brother! I didn't think you'd call this soon! Not to mention that you'd be with Winry! Say, now I don't have to say anything!"

"Yes you do, Al!"

"Why!" Alphonse whined.

"Because we have a post-traumatic Winry on our hands! She'll come back to Resembool different than when she left, and Granny will suspect something happened. Now, I don't want to die, and I suppose you don't want to die either, so tell Granny that Winry was kidnapped, for goodness sake!" Ed said, jamming the receiver back into the telephone, and thereby hanging up on Al.

He panted heavily for a few moments.

"You didn't tell her I was kidnapped?" Winry asked.

"Don't blame me, I was out searching for you! And then Mustang called to tell Alphonse that you were kidnapped, so he could tell Granny. And then, Alphonse didn't tell Granny, so I told him he had to tell her, and he still didn't," Ed hissed, calming down.

A few moments passed.

"Do you want something to eat?" Ed asked, not feeling all that hungry.

"Nah," Winry said. "I'm beat. And you bought me all those little snacks while we were out, so I'm not that hungry, thanks anyway... I think I might just go to bed,"

"I was thinking the same thing," Ed said, smiling at her.

Winry walked over to a bed and slid under the covers. From there, all Ed saw were random pieces of clothing flying out from under the covers while Winry changed into a nightgown. Ed took the time to strip to his boxers. It was rather warm in the dorm.

When Winry's head peeked out of the covers again, Ed said, "We have a bathroom,"

"That's okay, really," Winry said, blushing both from his comment and from Ed in boxers. "Sometimes I'm too lazy to use the bathroom when I'm up late with automail, so I just change under the covers,"

"Well, you've taken it to an art form," Ed chuckled, sitting down on the other bed.

"Ed?"

"Yeah?"

Winry really wanted to restore her trust in Ed. Facing the fear of rapist-Ed that seemed embedded in the real Ed was the only way for her to do so. So she gathered her courage and said, "Would you lie next to me, maybe just for a little while?"

'_At least it wasn't "kiss me" like last time,_' Ed thought. "If you really want me to,"

Winry nodded slightly, blushing too. Ed nodded once, then came over and wedged himself between Winry and the wall. She faced outward. Winry was secretly glad. This would give her a place to escape, and she wouldn't be able to be pinned to the wall, just in case. '_I can't believe I'm thinking this way about him. He's not even the same person,_' she thought, ashamed.

Ed reached across her to turn out the light, and they were bathed in moonlight from the window. Winry's senses immediately went on alarm. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck, and his form pressed against her slightly through the covers that he had chosen to stay on top of. Her breath picked up, and she forced her body to remain relaxed.

With some tension, she said, "You don't have to buy me all that stuff you know,"

"Huh?" Ed asked.

"All the food, and the automail stuff, you don't have to buy it for me," she said.

He chuckled, and a chill ran up her spine. "Of course I do," he said.

"What?"

"Winry, it's not often that I get to see you. This job is hectic and dangerous, and most of the time when I do get to see you, you're angry or hurt about the shape of my automail. When you come here, I like to see you happy. Buying you things makes you happy, so I buy you things, and you're happy. It's that simple," Ed said.

Winry sighed at the confession. "You do it... for my happiness?"

"...Yeah,"

Winry felt her heart thump, but not in fear, rather in a hopeful sort of anticipation, a kind she knew well because she felt it every time Ed was close to her. "I want to talk now," she said.

"Alright," he replied.

"I was scared when I got there. Scared and angry because they had kidnapped me. When I woke up, someone came into the room. It was Mr. Hughes," she heard a slight gasp from Edward behind her. "I knew he was dead, but he was there. Then another person came in and told Mr. Hughes to leave. It was Wrath. He told me that I was having dinner with his master. He made me change into this ball gown dress and do my hair and everything, and then he took me down to eat with them,"

"Who was there?" Ed asked.

"Me, Wrath, and two other girls. One of them had a baby. Her name was Rose, and she said she knew you,"

"Rose," Edward breathed softly. "But I left her with- with Lyra,"

Winry stiffened. "The other girl's name was Lyra, and she was the one the homunculi called Master,"

"What- How can that be?" Ed gasped behind Winry. "Never mind, go on," he said, afraid to lose Winry's train of thought. He didn't want to dissuade her from talking now.

"I got there, and Lyra started examining me. She told me I had a well-built body, and that's why you loved me so much,"

"What?" Ed asked, almost like a reflex.

Winry ignored him, and went on. "Then she told Rose to tell me how much she loved you. Then the baby started to cry, and Rose started to breast-feed him. Then Lyra called in the food, which was brought in by chimeras,"

"Chimeras?" Ed repeated, and then he realized he'd interrupted her again. "Sorry, keep going, I won't talk again,"

"That's alright. It's strange when you don't talk. Anyway, Lyra tried to use Rose to get information out of me, and when Rose tried to say something, it was your name. Lyra told Rose that you loved her, and she should be content. Then I said that I didn't know anything about Rose, and Lyra called me rude. I asked her if she was expecting me to fall for this, and she said that on one hand, she'd hoped, but on the other, she thought "Edward's Lover" would be smarter than that,"

"My- my _lover_?" Ed said, his voice cracking behind her.

"After that, she called off dinner, and Wrath led me back to my room. I sat there thinking when I felt someone watching me. I turned, and it was you..."

"Me?" Ed asked. '_Envy_'

"You held your hand out to me and said that we didn't have much time, and we should get out of here fast. When he pulled me in, I shrieked. Wrath called from the hallway, and I looked up at you. But there was something wrong, and I shrieked again. Wrath ended up coming in and seeing you with me, and so we swung to the roof. Wrath couldn't get up there, so he turned back. We ran across the rooftop. I noticed there was no breeze, no stars, and I realized that we were underground somewhere. Then you picked me up and we went to another building. Finally we jumped down and turned into an alley. It was small and cramped, and we pressed up against each other,"

Winry paused for a moment. Ed wanted to reach out to her, but he refrained, knowing that the worst was still to come.

"You asked if I was alright, pressing a hand to my cheek. I told you I didn't think you'd come, and hugged you. You asked me why you wouldn't come, because you cared for me so much. Then you started kissing my neck, and demanding a reward for saving me. You bit and licked and kissed my neck. And I yelled at you to stop, but you wouldn't. You reached down and pulled up my nightgown and slid it to my waist,"

He now felt Ed shrinking behind her. His breathing was hard and ragged, and she could tell he was trying to get as far away from her as possible, and not touch her at all. She felt almost a strange satisfaction at telling him this story, and so she continued with details.

"You kissed my neck some more, and then my lips, and it hurt. And I kept telling you to stop, but you didn't. And you pulled down my panties and they fell to my ankles. You started stroking my thighs, telling me how smooth and soft they were, and you parted them and stepped in between. Your hand went higher and you started stroking me. And I told you to stop. And you told me you were taking what was yours. Then Wrath showed up, and he grabbed me away from you, and led me back to my room"

She felt Ed let out a breath behind her, possibly thinking it was over. But it wasn't. Winry wasn't through.

"Then, I met your mother, and I learned Rose's story, and the next night, it happened again. I woke up in your arms while you were running down the street. I told you to let go, but you told me to shut up, and then you dropped me. I started crying, and you told me to stop, and then you slapped me. Then you pinned me to the ground, and climbed on top of me, and kissed me. I told you to stop, and you said that I didn't want that. You kissed my neck, and then my collarbone, and you ripped the sleeves of my nightgown so the top fell down. You said you had taken the bottom half last night, so you'd do the top half today. You started ravaging my breasts, sucking biting and licking. I screamed your name, and you told me to keep doing it. You said you were glad that you got to me first, that it was always your dream to take whatever was Edward's, and I screamed for Wrath. You didn't stop. You kissed and bit me so many times, Ed-"

"Please, Winry, stop," she heard a slight beg behind her.

She froze, hearing those syllables come out of her mouth like before.

"I don't- I don't want to hear that. Not from you, not about me," he whimpered. She turned herself over, until she was facing him. She saw the tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said "I'm so sorry,"

"Ed-" she said, her voice cracking from unshed tears. "God, Ed, I'm sorry-" she said, reaching for him.

"No! You shouldn't be," he said, making her halt in her motions. "I let you get kidnapped. It's my fault that happened to you. And I did it to you too, I sexually harassed and assaulted you. That's what you said, right?"

She withdrew her hands, "Ed, I didn't mean for it to come out- I'm sorry-"

"No! Stop saying that! You say it all the time! You don't have anything to be sorry about!"

"Ed I was taking my anger out on you, and I shouldn't-"

"But if it was me that did it to you, you have every right to take it out on me!" Ed said. "It's me that doesn't want to listen. I don't want to hear about this, but I should because you should be able to take it out on me. I told you I would listen to you, but here I am, not-"

"But Ed, you didn't expect that it would be about you when you said I could talk to you-"

"Excuse me, Winry, but I... have to go take a walk," Ed said, getting up immediately and grabbing his pants and his red jacket. He left the room before putting either of them on.

"...Ed?..." Winry asked to the empty room. No! Why did he leave! She needed him here!

She had been getting a bit carried away, there. She had wanted someone to suffer for what she had had done to her, but she didn't want that suffering to come from Ed. '_But part of me did want it to come from Ed-_' she thought guiltily. It had been Ed who had abused her, but it was someone different than the Ed who had just been lying next to her. It occurred to her that she had hurt her best friend harder than she could have ever hit him with a wrench.

She started to cry.

TBC

* * *

Alright folks, since that was a rather short chapter, I have decided to include a preview of my next FMA fic. Also, there is another author's note at the end of the sneak peek.

* * *

**SNEAK PEEK:**

**NOTE: THIS STORY WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS UP TO AND INCLUDING EPISODE 51 AND THE CONQUEROR OF SHAMBALA MOVIE

* * *

**

**SOUL GATE

* * *

**

'_You idiot! Did you really think there couldn't_ be_ a Gate! The Gate has to be there!_' _Russell Tringham shouted._

_"Would you leave me alone!" Ed shouted back._

_"No! This is the only way to get through to you!" Russell screamed._

_"GO AWAY!" Ed shouted._

Ed sat up in the dark confines of the room. Next to him, he felt his brother move slightly in his sleep, mumble something, and continue breathing heavily. At least he hadn't woken Alphonse up this time. These nightmares had been plaguing him for days on end. Every night a different person, but always the same speech. First it had been Mustang, then Hawkeye, then Hughes, then Pinako and then a whole bunch of other people he knew. Why he was dreaming this, he didn't know.

He did know that these dreams started just last week, the day after they had successfully destroyed the Gate leading to this world: Earth, from his home world, Amestris. He suddenly shivered and pulled the blanket closer. It was rather cold in Germany during the nights. Add to that the fact that they were sleeping in the abandoned warehouse the Heiderich's had been staying in, and you're not in for a pleasant experience.

When he had come back to Germany the Heiderich's had taken him and Alphonse in without questions, although they knew he contributed in their Alphonse' death, as well as their Edward's. They had taken in Noah as well, for which the gypsy was grateful. Now was not the time to be a gypsy. Those in Germany were swiftly turning against each other with the release of Hitler's new book _Mein Kampf_. When Alphonse asked Ed what that meant, Ed had replied "My Struggle" in the most sarcastic tone of voice he could muster. And then Alphonse had asked about Hitler himself.

Ed briefly looked at his sleeping brother and for the life of him couldn't figure out what was wrong. Why could he not sleep? Why were his dreams haunted by the people of Amestris, people he would never get to see again? He saw Winry briefly when he returned to Amestris, but that would never be enough for him. He had so many things he wanted to say. He wanted to thank her most of all, for believing in his safe return and even having automail ready for him to use. After that incident, he had resigned himself to the fact that he would never marry anyone other than her, and he should get used to being a bachelor.

Ed snuck a look at Al. The boy shifted, hauling all the blankets with him, and snorted. Ed shivered, now without blankets on the bed, and so he stood and walked swiftly to the wooden dresser and changed into the brown outfit with white shirt and gloves that he had gotten used to wearing here. There would have been no use trying to get to bed again. Noah would be up already anyway, she was used to early mornings. Not that it was really early, he saw as he passed the small window in the room. The sun had already risen, and that would mean Gracia would be busy at her flower shop, and Noah would be with her.

He exited the room and quietly closed the door, still not wanting Alphonse to wake. He turned the corner and traveled down the wallpapered hall to the set of stairs, which he quickly descended, and felt a slight pang as he remembered Alphonse Heiderich pushing him down in this exact spot only a week before. He pushed the memory out of his mind, grabbed the plain brown overcoat on the coat hanger, and left the building.

He was glad he had grabbed the coat. It was even colder outside than it was in, and Ed briefly wondered how Gracia could sell flowers in this weather. He felt the urgent need to be inside with heat, and so walked all the more swiftly to the flower shop.

Both of the women looked up as he entered, the tiny bell over the door alerting them to someone entering.

"Hey," he said to both of them.

"Hello, Edward," Gracia said, and returned to placing a blooming rose into a bouquet.

"You're up early again, Ed. This is the fifth time this week," Noah said, always one to worry as she placed a glass vase on the counter and tagged it for the customer to pick up later. "I'm worried you're not getting enough sleep,"

"I'm sure I'll be sleeping alright by the weekend," Ed responded. Things had been icy with Noah ever since he had refused to take her through the Gate with him.

"That's what you said last week. Is there something going on?" Noah nagged.

"She has a point, Ed," Gracia said. "I'm worried about you too. You've been like this ever since that day when all hell broke loose here. Did something happen that I should know about?"

Ed and Noah shared the briefest of glances before Ed responded, "No. My brother just came to town, that's all,"

"And your brother causes you to lose sleep?" Gracia asked, placing her bouquet on the shelf in the front window for passerby to look at.

"No, but he's happy to see me again. We haven't seen each other in... six years. He insists on sleeping in the same bed with me to make sure I won't just be gone in the morning,"

"Like you are every morning before he wakes up?" Noah said, tossing him a look.

"Yes," Ed said, rolling his eyes as he picked up a vase of flowers and placed it on a shelf. "And then he always dresses quickly and runs to the shop and yells at me,"

"Then you shouldn't leave," Gracia pointed out.

"But if I'm awake, I can't just do nothing!" Ed said. "I'm an impatient type of person. Waiting makes me itchy," Ed said, briefly reminded of the time he said this to suit-of-armor Alphonse on the Rockbell's front lawn in Resembool as he waited for Winry to be done making a new arm. He flexed his arm once at the memory, dwelling on thoughts of her. The motor oil, the grease, the way she bit her tongue as it pushed through her lips when she was concentrating really hard.

"But if Alphonse is really insecure about the fact that you're not there when he wakes up, shouldn't you be at least a little more sympathetic. He'll get used to it eventually, but until then leaving him alone every morning is not going to make him comfortable here," Noah pointed out.

Ed was about to respond when, as if on cue, Alphonse burst into the shop.

"ED!" Alphonse yelled, running to his brother and squeezing him.

"Al," Ed said, once his brother had squeezed the air out of his lungs. "I can't breathe,"

"Why did you leave!" Al demanded.

"Alphonse. I can't just stay there. You know waiting makes me itchy," Ed said with pained breath. His brother hadn't stopped squeezing.

"Why are you getting up so early, too! You always used to be the one to sleep in. Now you're the early riser?" Al asked skeptically.

"A lot has changed in six years, Al," Ed said. "Now let go,"

Alphonse let Ed go grudgingly, and Ed reached down and patted the top of his head, ruffling the bangs like he remembered doing as a kid. Al smiled up at him. Up, Ed thought briefly, I'm taller than him still. This sent a tingle of pleasure throughout his system as he smiled back at his younger brother.

"Good Morning, Alphonse," Gracia said.

"Morning Mrs. Hug- er- Gracia," Al replied. He still wasn't quite used to seeing normal people with different lives. He'd immediately attached to Mrs. Hughes in Amestris when Winry took him to Central to inquire about his brother from Mustang when he'd first gotten his body back. This trip had obviously included going to see Brigadier General Maes' grave, and stories about the man Al couldn't remember, but felt a strong feeling toward. He had met the "Officer" Hughes here when he'd come to apologize to Ed for roughly taking him from a bar. Ed still hadn't explained that incident. Apparently, Officer Hughes hadn't married, nor asked out his alternate-wife.

Gracia giggled slightly and nodded back at the boy, placing more roses in another bouquet.

"Alphonse, come here," Noah said. When Al complied, she fixed his collar, then smiled. "Good morning,"

Al smiled up at her. He could tell this was Rose's alter, although she didn't look as uncannily alike to her counterpart as Gracia did.

"Well, Al, as long as you're up, how about we go and get some food. Anyone want anything?" he asked the two ladies.

"Not at the moment, thank you," Gracia said, busily arranging flowers until they looked just right in the vase.

"Would you mind getting me some sweetbread, Ed?" Noah asked, taking the vase from Gracia and placing it on a shelf.

"Of course not," Ed replied, and grabbed Al's shoulder, pushing him toward the door. "Be back soon," Ed said, as he and Al left the shop.

* * *

Winry Rockbell sat on the fence of her house behind the barn. It was early morning, and she briefly wondered why she wasn't still asleep. But she knew, really. It was because Ed had left again, and this time he'd taken Al with him. Ever since the day he came back, she'd been plagued with nightmares, nightmares in which Ed usually ended up dead or fatally wounded and she couldn't do anything about it except weep. And at the end of every nightmare, he would always slide away from her through two double-doors which closed after him, blocking him from her forever.

That was how it went, wasn't it?

Al had opened the Gate, and in the end, that's what separated her from them.

But she'd lost all hope when Mustang told her he'd destroyed the gate from this side, and Ed was destroying it from that side, and at some point Al had snuck through, so both brothers were reunited, just not with her.

Why! They had always been a threesome! Why should they get to live with each other, and leave her behind!

Answer: she was always the one left behind.

It had something to do with Alchemy.

The boys had started to learn it just as she had started to learn mechanics, and in the end it was alchemy that separated them, almost literally. They left her to become alchemists for the state, and she became what? A mechanic. And that Gate thingy had something to do with Alchemy. And that's what was separating them, so their separation could only lead back to alchemy.

The sunrise was bitter, as it had been every time she watched it this week. It only led her back to thoughts of who was NOT here with her, and should be. Ed. They were meant for each other, she knew. Scieska knew too, and she'd only proclaimed it to Winry many times over the course of their friendship, bragging about her four-hundred-and-something romance novels where the boy best friend always turned out to be the lover of the independent heroine. Then there would be this super hot love scene between the two, at which point Winry would state the flaw in that plan to the ever-loving bookworm. Ed wasn't here, so their romance novel of a life would never end in a hot love scene, as much as she wanted it to. Then Scieska would proclaim with stars in her eyes that their story wasn't over, and this was the hopeless separation between the two star-crossed lovers, who would finally have a happy ending sometime, and THEN the hot love scene. Then Winry would say that the only way to get to Ed had been destroyed, and she would take on a depressed tone of voice, and Scieska would leave, knowing Winry was about to cry, and also knowing that Winry didn't like anyone to see her cry.

The thought made a tear roll down her cheek. A soft breeze blew, sending her thin nightgown rippling in the breeze as her skin developed goosebumps and the tiny blonde hairs of her arms and legs stood on end in protest to the cold.

The sun had risen, and with it, the promise of a new day. It was time to go. There would be automail to fix, and customers to deal with, but she knew her heart wouldn't be in it anymore with such a large piece so far away with Edward, wherever he was.

She froze as she felt eyes on her, and turned quickly around to search for the person looking at her.

He was by the tree, clutching the trunk. It was a boy, about her age, with strange clothes. A memory tugged at her, and she realized they were similar to the clothes that Edward had worn when she had seen him just a week ago. But the face, the face of the boy was familiar; it was slightly pudgy and childlike. She knew him. But it couldn't be-

"Alphonse?" Winry gasped softly, but apparently he heard, as his eyes began to bulge, and he turned to leave. "ALPHONSE!" she screamed at him, and he turned around again to see Winry running toward him. She jumped at him, trying to make him stop leaving, and was surprised to find herself face-down in the dirt, clutching grass between her fingers instead of the fabric of the fine clothing.

She was there. But that was impossible. She couldn't have- couldn't have gone _through_ him.

She flipped herself over, only to stare blankly as she noticed his feet were _in_ her stomach, but he was still standing.

"Wha- what?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Y- you can see me?" he asked. His voice was a lot like Al's, soft and tender with child-like curiosity.

"Y- you're standing in my stomach," she said, still slightly unnerved at the fact.

It seemed he became aware of the fact too, because he quickly stepped off- or out- of her. Winry let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Looking up at him now, she noticed his eyes were blue, almost as blue as hers, and his hair was blonde, not brown, and he seemed to look opaque, see-through, almost, and she startled herself with the fact that she could, indeed, see through him.

"Er- how did you know my name?" he asked.

* * *

Ed grumpily stood in line at the bakery with Alphonse. How could this many people be up this _early_! And why would they all be at the bakery! Ed tapped his foot as Alphonse once again drank in the sights around him, as if for the first time.

The couple in front of Ed and Al stepped aside with a bag full of baked goods, and the baker saw them. The baker was a large man, rather fat, as was expected from someone who made food for a living, with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a chef's uniform and a tall baker's hat and apron.

"Ah, Edward!" the baker said, with a heavy German accent. "What can I get for you? Your usual?"

"That and whatever Al wants," Ed said pushing his brother up to the counter.

"Ah, so this is the brother Alphonse, eh?" he said, looking at Alphonse with one large eye. "Hey, boys! He does exist!" he shouted over his shoulder, where Ed just noticed was a table full of people he knew, including Officer Hughes. They all laughed, all except Hughes, who knew better, now.

"Haha, very funny," Ed said sarcastically.

"You cannot blame me, Edward. You do talk a lot about that place in your fantasies, with that blonde girl, there. And then you talk about your brother, and one can only imagine if he's real or not. You can't always trust that what comes out of your mouth is real and tangible, Edward," the baker said.

The boys at the table laughed at the baker's words, except Hughes that is, who was now informed that Ed was right about the other world, and didn't find this banter very funny at all. Not too many people had seen what he had that day when hell turned loose on Germany, but it was enough to make him trust Ed, Nazi or not.

"Right. Al, what do you want?" Ed said, nudging his brother.

"There's so much to choose from!" Al whined.

"Al!" Ed said, annoyed.

"Fine! A lemon turnover, please?" Al asked the baker.

"Right," the baker said, smiling.

Al went off to sit with the people Ed knew while Edward paid the baker. He joined Al a few seconds later, and was pleased to hear the conversation was about pets, which Alphonse could participate in fully. Ed went to go sit by Hughes.

Since that day Ed had found he could trust Hughes more than he ever could, even if he was a Nazi. Hughes believed him now, knowing what he'd said all along was true, and taking Ed's word on everything.

"So Ed," Hughes said, grabbing him around the neck. "Hear about those ghosts in the next town over?" Hughes said.

"Don't be an idiot, Hughes, ghosts aren't real," Ed said, removing the policeman's arm and fishing in the bag for the raspberry turnover he had bought for himself.

"Ever since that day, Ed, I don't know what's real anymore. Who knows if ghosts don't have something to do with the Gate, right?" Hughes said, half-jokingly.

"I do," Ed said, completely sure.

"Anyway, apparently these ghosts of soldiers who were killed in a bombing a day ago, they show up where they were supposed to end up before they were killed. And get this- the people there actually _talked_ to them. The guys requested to see the Major General, who they were supposed to report to, like they had just woken up and the guys don't even think they're dead!"

"Right," Ed snorted.

"I happened to have heard it from a very reliable source," Hughes said.

"Who happened to hear it from a very unreliable source," Ed countered, slapping Hughes' hand as he reached for the second half of Ed's turnover.

"Part of the criteria of being a reliable source means that these people hear it from reliable sources, Ed," Hughes said.

"I still don't believe them," Ed said, standing and snatching the second half of his turnover away from Hughes' hungry glance. "Come on, Al! We're leaving!" Ed said.

"But brother! I was telling these guys how to potty train a kitten!" Al protested.

"Noah won't like it if her sweetbread's cold, Al. And we don't still want to be out when Gracia decides she want's her daily tea with milk and two sugars, and a lemon turnover," he slid his eyes carefully at Hughes.

The officer nodded appreciatively at Ed, and then grabbed his elbow. "Er- Ed. You said earlier that if I asked Gracia out... things would turn out okay. Were you basing that on your opinion, or maybe something more factual-?"

"Take her the tea and turnover around eight, and name your daughter Elysia," Ed said, grabbing Al by the arm and pulling him out of the bakery. Hughes' face lit up at the information, and he finished his coffee hurriedly and went to get some money to buy the goods for Gracia.

"Brother," Al asked when they were out on the street again, "Are you sure it was okay to tell him that-"

"It was going to happen anyway, Al. It would be better to see them happy sooner," Ed said, his gaze softening somewhat. Al stared at his brother, and then smiled too.

They turned the corner back toward the flower shop where Gracia spotted them, while she was putting flowers outside, and waved. Al waved excitedly back, and ran ahead to tell her that she should expect company around eight.

Ed paused for a moment on the street, smiling at the scene. He then started after his brother when something bumped into him from behind.

Ed fell down to the sidewalk, and he felt whatever had bumped into him fall down on top of him. He groaned face-down on the sidewalk as the receptors in his nerves registered the pain. It was hard to breathe with this thing on top of him, and he started to feel a growing resentment toward whatever it was currently laying on him. Didn't it know there were people walking here! It didn't own the sidewalk! He pushed up hard, and the thing rolled off of him, and landed in a heap next to him.

All he could see were blonde curls as he stared at the lump of a person. But he knew who it was immediately.

Winry.

Good god, someone was out to torture him.

His hands sprang into action, clearing her face of hair, and examining her facial features, making sure she was breathing. She was, but not very well. Her breaths came in shuddering gasps that racked her body, and her cheeks looked tearstained and red. She shivered with cold as the breeze blew by, and she coughed rather dramatically. At his prodding, her eyes opened slightly, and a moan escaped her lips with a name loosely attached. She fell limp in his hands as he gasped.

"Edward?"

* * *

Winry sat against the trunk of the tree now. Alphonse had explained that his last name was Heiderich, and he was from this place called Germany, and Winry recognized it as someplace Ed had mentioned during his brief revisit to Amestris. Winry had told him she knew his name because he looked like someone she knew.

They sat there staring at each other.

"You look like someone I used to know, too," Alphonse said out of the blue.

"Oh?" Winry asked.

"Yeah. She was younger than I was. She was about the age of my younger brother, Edward. Her name was Winry, too, and she had a crush on my brother. It crushed her when we found out that he died,"

"He died?" Winry asked in despair.

"Ed Heiderich died at the age of sixteen when he was in the care of one of my dad's friends, Hohenheim Elric, in London. That's a city in a country called England,"

"Oh," Winry said, realizing he was not talking about her Ed, but another Edward, and momentarily missing the comment about Hohenheim.

"And then, I met this other Ed. He was a year older than I, and was Hohenhiem's son. Ed Elric,"

"Ed! You met him? What happened to him? Where did he go!" Winry asked excitedly. This was the first trace of evidence of Edward being somewhere else. And if this guy, Alphonse Heiderich, his name was, came HERE, then it is highly probable that Ed could too. Actually, it was more than probable! Ed was one of the most astoundingly determined people she knew. He would find a way to get through, if there was one.

"Edward Elric? You know him! How-" he cut off and grasped his chest. The sun had fully risen, and now the soft rays of light hit the spectral Alphonse in different spots, and when they did, he cried in sharp pain.

"Alphonse?" Winry asked, she noticed he became less solid, and more opaque. It hit her that he was leaving. "Alphonse! Hold on!"

She arose and ran quickly to the barn, coming back moments later with a small golden cat cradled in her hands.

"Alphonse, you don't have a body here, right? You say you died. Try putting the part of you that's here into this cat. You like cat's right?"

"I'm allergic-"

"No! Alphonse loves cats. You love cats! Just try please! You have to stay here! There are so many things- so many questions-"

At the look on her face, Alphonse decided that even if he didn't know what the outcome would be, he would try if it made her happy. He hadn't seen Winry happy in a long time, and even if this wasn't the Winry he knew, it would almost be the same.

"Okay," he said, and concentrated hard, blocking out the pain that he felt all over.

Winry saw a bright light emanate from the middle of his chest. It seemed to pull everything toward it, even bend reality. She blinked as Alphonse disappeared completely into the light, and the small ball started to descend onto the kitten she held in her hands. The small ball of life stiffened at the first contact, and then the light disappeared as the kitten relaxed.

She waited with baited breath for something to happen.

Slowly, the kitten opened its eyes. They were so blue; Winry was almost startled at how much they resembled Heiderich's eyes.

"Alphonse?" she asked.

"I know it was short notice," the kitten said, "But it had to be a _kitten_?"

* * *

How's that? So, in the next story I will work to include:

-Almost everybody from the series and movie

-Ghosts

-An alternate end to the series

-A somewhat viable way for Edward and Alphonse to get home

-The happy ending that should be there at the end- but wasn't

-DRAMA!

YAY! So stay tuned for Soul Gate, and be happy that you got to read that. Usually in sneak peeks, I only give some of the dialogue that will come up throughout the story, not the entire first half of the first chapter!

animebookworm44


	9. Chapter 9

Here's the next chapter of The Birthday. I know you've all been waiting for it!

THANKS TO REVIEWERS!

REVIEW THIS CHAPTER!

**Disclaimer:** Standard

So, here we go!

* * *

Edward, meanwhile, had been wandering the streets at midnight when Gracia found him.

Ed still didn't know why she had been out at that time, nor had he been told she was released from the hospital. Her arm was in a sling, and she had a few bruises on her face, but Ed was still happy to see her. He was happy to have a motherly figure around. It made him feel more relaxed, or as relaxed as he could be after he had been told that he'd assaulted Winry. So it wasn't _him_, exactly, but it was close enough to him: his step brother who just happened to look like him at the time.

**Chapter 9**

Gracia took him home without question when she saw the shape he was in. He was strangely distraught and disturbed in some way. She set him up on the couch where he went straight to sleep after hitting the plush cushions. She stayed up with him for half an hour or so, watching him sleep, and watching the tears he had left unshed while conscious come out unconsciously. She patted his head once and kissed his forehead, and then went to check on Elysia.

Gracia was awakened around two o'clock by sounds coming from the couch.

Ed happened to be having a nightmare.

The fact that he was this scared really said something. Ed usually never thrashed about this much in his sleep, even with nightmares. She put a hand to his forehead, only to have it quickly slapped away by a flailing hand. How had Winry said she dealt with these? Oh yes.

"Edward?" she asked in a soft tone. Edwards thrashing slowed a bit. It was working.

"Ed, you're having a bad dream," she continued, placing a hand on his chest, and then one on his forehead.

Winry said this was the time she usually kissed Ed's forehead, so Gracia did the same. Ed's breathing calmed and his arms came still and dropped back to the couch. "Ed, wake up,"

"Win?" Ed asked. And, as if on cue, he opened his eyes. Finding Gracia there, he was slightly startled.

"Expecting Winry?" Gracia asked, and giggled.

At Winry's name, Ed's face turned sour. "Kinda. She's usually the one that wakes me," Ed said, but it was almost painful.

"Ed, will you tell me what happened?" Gracia asked. "I think now's a good time. And you'll be able to get it off your chest. I promise I won't say anything to anyone,"

"I don't want to disturb your sleep," Ed said.

"Ed, if you have another nightmare, you'll be disturbing my sleep even more. You had better tell me," Gracia said, sitting in a chair by the couch and wrapping a blanket around herself. "Go on,"

"Well, I got Winry back yesterday," Ed started.

"Oh, Ed, that's wonderful! She's okay, right?" Gracia asked.

"Well, she's okay physically. It's the mentally that I'm worried about," Ed said. "We had a nice day yesterday, and then last night she said she wanted to talk about the kidnapping. So I told her I'd listen. She told me stuff about her kidnappers, and where she was, and then she told me that I molested her,"

"What?" Gracia asked.

"Anyway, I couldn't stay. I left her in the dorm room about eleven thirty, and I was just walking around when you found me,"

"Why would she say you molested her? You weren't anywhere near her, right?" Gracia asked.

"Nowhere near. But it wasn't me, exactly. It was the homunculus Envy, who looked like me at the time,"

"That's the homunculus that pretended to be me," Ed nodded. "Oh, I'm sorry Edward. That's horrible. But you can't just run away from that. You can't just not see Winry for the rest of your life, especially since you're hopelessly in love with her,"

"What!"

Gracia looked taken aback. "You didn't know that? I thought you knew..."

"No, I knew that, but how did you know!"

"Please, Edward, it frighteningly obvious. As a matter of fact, relationships are most often seen by peers before they're seen by the couple themselves," Gracia said. "Anyway, what were you planning on doing?"

"First, getting some sleep. After that, I don't know what to do,"

"Why don't you stay here tomorrow, until you're feeling better and think you can talk to Winry," Gracia suggested.

"Thank you, Mrs. Hughes," Edward said.

"Now get some rest. You know you need it," Gracia said, standing and turning back for her own bedroom.

Ed sighed as she left, and lay back down on the couch. He was asleep in no time, and this time his head wasn't filled with nightmares.

* * *

Winry had sat in the bed for an hour contemplating what to do. Her tired and depressed brain was too tired and depressed to figure out whether to go after him, where he was going in the first place, and what to say to make him forgive her for putting him through that. She didn't have to. It was really rather snide of her to have said it in the first place. And, needless to say, she was feeling a guilt trip.

These thoughts tossed her into an uneasy sleep.

Edward still wasn't back when she woke up.

She silently cursed whatever gods there were for ever having said anything to Ed in the first place. He must really be mad at her if he was still out somewhere. That meant that he hadn't slept at all, or that he had gone to a friend's house to sleep. Looking at the clock, she sighed.

"It's still too early to call anyone and see if he slept over. That would just be disturbing everyone's sleep again," she reasoned to herself.

That said, she dressed and went out looking for Ed herself.

As she headed out the door, she was looked at rather strangely by some male officers who were probably wondering why she was in a male dorm, and leaving so early, and who had invited her there in the first place. She rolled her eyes at the disgusting looks on their faces and continued out the door.

Despite her sense of guilt for having put Ed through all of that strife, she really did feel better. She had gotten the terrible happenings off her chest, and she could face it when the military came to question her about it. She expected that she'd cry when telling the tale, but that was normal really.

Actually, it was quite a wonder to her that she was able to get over it this fast. That _wasn't_ normal.

She was about to ask the guards to open the gate when she realized something, perhaps Mustang had sent Ed out on another mission.

She veered off sharply to the left and entered the main building. The delivery truck at the side entrance brought up some memories of her first kidnapping, but she shook it off. Edward had been there for her after that. It pained her to know that he was not here now.

And after the lovely day they spent yesterday!

As she walked down the hall, a few of the military people nodded to her. She came upon Ross and Brosh around the corner to Mustang's office.

"Lt. Ross? Have you seen Ed?"

"What? He's not here?"

"Er- no,"

"Was he kidnapped?" Brosh asked. "Or maybe he-"

"No. We had a talk yesterday, and he kinda left me. I figured I'd give him some time, but when he wasn't back when I got up, I decided to look for him," Winry said.

"Ask Mustang, he might have seen him," Ross said, pointing down the hall toward Mustang's office.

"Well, thanks anyway," Winry said dejectedly. She then left and traveled down the hall to the office. She knocked once, just to be sure he wasn't busy, and then entered the room.

All of Mustang's staff watched her as she came in. She waited in the doorway awkwardly for a few moments, and then they all turned away from her.

"Miss Rockbell, what can I do for you?" Mustang asked from behind his desk. Hawkeye stood off to his right, and gave a greeting nod to Winry.

"I was wondering, Colonel, if you had seen Ed," This got the attention of everyone in the room, and they all stared awkwardly at Winry again.

"Fullmetal's missing now?" Mustang asked. "He isn't with you?"

"No,"

"And he isn't in the dorm?"

"No,"

"And he isn't in the cafeteria?"

"No,"

"And he isn't undergoing surgery to make him taller?"

"Uh- no,"

"Then I have absolutely no idea where he is," Mustang said. "Do you know when he left?"

"It was around 11 last night," Winry said.

"And do you know why?"

"Well... we were talking... and I told him a few things about my kidnapping that got him upset, and so he left. I wanted to give him a little time to digest what I told him, but he wasn't back when I got up, so I went looking, and I still haven't found him,"

"Hawkeye, where does Fullmetal like to go?" Mustang asked her.

Hawkeye flipped through a few sheets of paper on a clipboard. "In order of frequency: the library; the park; the cafe; the dorm; the military training grounds; the river; the hospital, although that's not for recreation it's just where he usually ends up; your office, which is not for recreation either but usually you calling him for some absurd reason such as to tease him relentlessly about his height; the cafeteria; the train station, because of all of his traveling; and he sometimes visits automail shops to buy more oil or a present for Miss Rockbell here, or perhaps to buy some scrap metal to fix his brother with," Hawkeye placed the clipboard back on the desk.

"Very thorough, Hawkeye," Mustang said.

"It was really Ross and Brosh, sir. They are the ones you usually assign to tail Fullmetal,"

"Ah, right," Mustang said. Winry just blinked. "Have you checked in all those places?"

"Sir, Edward hasn't allowed me to leave military grounds without his presence since... ever, now that I think about it. So, no, I haven't checked any of those places. I also believe that if Ed didn't want anyone to find him, he wouldn't go someplace people have seen him in frequently; he's smarter than that,"

Mustang glanced at Hawkeye.

"She's right, sir," Hawkeye said. "Fullmetal is a very hard person to find when he's not looking to be found. He's also very recognizable, so people would notice if he was anywhere out in the open. But I don't think he's gotten into any trouble, sir."

"What makes you say that, Hawkeye?"

"Just a woman's instinct, sir,"

"Ah yes, and instinct is a very powerful thing. Have no fear, Miss Rockbell, Edward gets angsty from time to time, and only time by himself will make it better. Sometimes not even Alphonse can help it, which is saying something. Your best move is to leave him alone for now. But, onto other things, the military has a need to interview you and record what happened for our personal knowledge. It would be better if this is done as soon as is possible. If you are free later today, then that would be best,"

"Alright," Winry said. "Perhaps around one?"

"Perfect. I shall see you later Miss Rockbell, you may go,"

"Thank you,"

As Winry exited the office, only one thought crossed her mind:

'_How am I going to tell them Edward sexually assaulted me!_'

* * *

Edward awoke around noon. He was so surprised to see that it was midday that he fell off the couch and scrambled to find Gracia.

She was in the kitchen making lunches. "Edward, you're awake. You slept well," she said.

"ED!" shouted Elysia, who had come down the stairs. "Mommy told me you found Winry! Yippee! Can I see her? Can I? Can I?" she said, glomping onto Edward's leg.

"Maybe later, Elysia," Ed replied, patting her on the head.

"Here," Gracia said, placing a plate on the table. "You must be hungry,"

"Thank you, Mrs. Hughes," Edward said, and started shoveling the contents of the plate into his mouth. It was rather strange to be back at this house after what had happened on his and Elysia's birthday. He peered into the dining room and was able to see where Winry, Envy, and he had sat that night. That had been the beginning of everything. It was the night Winry got kidnapped, the night Gracia was injured, and possibly the worst birthday he'd ever had. Scratch that- it _was_ the worst, and it was probably Elysia's worst party too. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm just fine, Edward. I was released from the hospital last night, and Mustang interrogated me, and that's why I was out so late when I met you on the street," Gracia said. "It was a good thing I found you, too. It rained pretty harshly last night. I would hate for you to have been stuck out there,"

"Well, thank you for inviting me in. I didn't think of anywhere I could go at that late at night,"

"It was no problem, Edward. You saved everybody at the party, it was the least I could do,"

"Mommy! I'm hungry!" Elysia said. Gracia smiled and placed a grilled cheese sandwich in front of her daughter.

"Anyway, Edward, stay as long as you like. Perhaps you would like to have dinner with us?"

"That would be great, thanks,"

* * *

Winry spent the rest of the time before the interrogation looking for Ed. After finally giving up, she sat on a bench in the park and counted off the places Hawkeye said Ed was usually found.

"I've checked the park, the hospital, Mustang's office, the train station, the library, that cafe, the cafeteria, the training grounds, the river, and the dorm rooms. That leaves all of the automail shops, but I highly doubt he's there. Alphonse isn't metal anymore, and why would he be going to buy me a present. Plus his automail's in top condition, I fixed it a week ago,"

Winry checked the clock on the tower of city hall. With a start, she began running back to base; her interrogation was in a few minutes. How could she have forgotten?

She got to the military base just in time. Running up to Mustangs office, and getting stares from personnel as she passed, she tried to think up some excuse for Edward to have molested her. The military couldn't believe that someone would dress up as Ed, and unless it was Hawkeye and Mustang that were interrogating her, there were no other people who would have come into contact with the homunculus that changes forms.

She heaved a tremendous sigh of relief when she found that the people in the room were Mustang and Ross.

"Oh thank goodness," Winry said. "It's you,"

"We were asked to add our testimony to yours, Miss Rockbell, so we will be interrogating you," Ross said, gesturing for Winry to sit.

She did so, and couldn't help the wave of nervousness that comes with being put on the spot.

"Start at the very beginning. What happened after Elysia's birthday party?"

"I was unconscious when they took me. When I woke up, I found myself in a dark, yet lavishly furnished room on a feather bed, which I found rather strange," Winry began.

"Go on,"

"And I immediately panicked. I had no idea where I was, and I knew that if I was with Edward, he wouldn't have locked me in a room and left me alone. Then, I heard someone enter the room. It was Mr. Hughes. I told him he was dead, but he didn't listen to me. He thanked me for going to Elysia's birthday party,"

"Let the brainwashing begin," Mustang muttered.

"Anyway, after that Wrath came in. We talked a little bit, and I told him I was hungry, so he left to get some food for me. When he came back, he said I had to change for dinner, and picked out a dress from the closet. We talked some more, and then he led me to dinner. There were two girls there, and one other homunculus, Gluttony. One of the girls had a baby, her name was Rose. The other was the one the homunculi called Master, and her name was Lyra,"

"Lyra," Ross said, and scribbled the name down on the clipboard where she was taking notes on Winry's testimony.

"The dinner was brought in on the heads of these beasts that Lyra called chimeras,"

"Chimeras?" Mustang asked.

"Yes. There was more table talk where Lyra tried to make me jealous of Rose so I would spill information about Edward. I asked her if she was expecting me to fall for this, and she told me she expected more from Edward's lover,"

"Ed's lover?" Mustang and Ross both asked at the same time. Mustang said it with an amused tone, while Ross said it with curiosity.

"You're not..." Ross began.

"Oh no!" Winry said, denying the accusation at once. "Ed and I aren't sleeping together,"

"Okay," Ross said, looking a little relieved.

"Wrath brought me back to the room, and I was falling asleep when there was a tap on the window. It was Ed. He told me we had to get out of there now, and pulled me out the window. I squealed and alerted Wrath, who was outside the room. He came in, and Ed pulled me to the roof. We started running on the rooftop, and across buildings. Then, we reached an alley," she sniffed. "Edward started to kiss me and- and he pulled up my skirt and-"

"What!" Mustang said.

"Oh my god," Ross said. "He didn't-"

"No! No, he didn't. He was about to, when Wrath got there and took me away,"

"Edward?" Mustang said.

"And it wasn't Edward. I knew it. It was that homunculus, the one who can change into other people. He did it again the next night, only he touched my chest," Winry sobbed.

Ross handed her a tissue and shared a look with Mustang.

"But during that time, I figured out that we were underground. There were no stars, and the buildings on the edges curved upward like the whole place had fallen into a hole,"

Ross wrote that down on the sheet of paper. "Miss Rockbell, we have a few more questions for you,"

* * *

Winry was rather distraught when she was let out a few hours later. She needed to talk to Edward. Even just seeing Edward would do. But she needed him, and where was he? She didn't know.

"Edward? Where are you?" she sobbed.

"Miss Rockbell?" someone said behind her. It was Mustang. "Gracia Hughes is out of the hospital. I thought you might want to know that,"

"Thank you," she said, sniffing.

Looks like she was going to the Hughes'.

She sniffed and wiped her tears away while she walked through the building and exited the main doors, heading for the gate. She asked the guard on duty if they had seen Edward leave, but they hadn't. She should have known. The guard on duty now wouldn't have been the guard on duty last night, and that's when Ed would have left.

She turned right at the gate, starting to walk toward the Hughes' house. She promised herself that by the time she got to Gracia's there would be no more tears on her face, and she would put on a smile for them. They would probably be happy to see her. Goodness knows she would be happy to see _them_. She swiftly turned the last corner and caught sight of the clock on top of town hall's tower. Four o'clock in the afternoon. It would be dinnertime soon. She would have to make the visit short, unless they invited her to dinner for some reason.

She stopped at the gate to the house, looking up at the light yellow building and putting on a smile. With that, she headed toward the steps and rang the doorbell.

"I'll get it!" It was a male voice.

She was shocked when the door was opened by Edward.

"Ed..."

"Winry?"

They just stood staring at each other.

She didn't know what to say. Her mind was blank. He was here. He was alright. She had been out looking for him all afternoon, and here he was, just when she wasn't looking for him. Tears sprang to her eyes again, and she started sniffling.

She heard more than saw Ed's hand let go of the door handle. It reached out toward her for a moment, before it was quickly drawn back. She could tell that inside, he was conflicted. His face turned sorrowful, and he quickly stepped back into the house, turning and starting to run off.

"No!" Winry said, catching him before he could go anywhere. She hugged him around the back, pressing herself into him. "No, don't leave me again," she sobbed into the back of his shirt.

"Winry..." Edward said as his hands came up to clasp her own upon his chest.

"I have my wrench, Edward," she warned, squeezing him. "You'll be unconscious before you leave me again,"

He chuckled, and she felt the vibration inside of him. It felt odd to her. She didn't know you could _feel_ someone laugh. "Winry, let go," he said lightheartedly.

She contemplated that for a moment, and settled on just loosening her grip instead of letting him go. She sniffed again.

Her grip was loose enough that he could turn around to face her before enveloping her in a tight hug. "Winry, I am so, so sorry about what Envy did to you," he whispered to her. She clutched him tighter. "You know I'd do anything for you, right?"

"Anything? Anything in the world?" she asked, although it came out more like a soft hum because she said it while her face was buried in his neck. But he got the meaning, anyway.

"Anything at all," he replied, smiling. She could feel it, being so close to him.

"Edward? Who was at the door?" Gracia asked, coming into the hallway, where Edward and Winry were having their moment. "Oh," she said when she saw them. Edward and Winry let go of each other, but still stayed close, close enough to hear each other breathe.

"Hello, Mrs. Hughes. Good to see you're out of the hospital," Winry said.

"And it's so good to see you, dear," she said. Edward stepped back as Gracia came to hug Winry.

"WIINNNNRYYY!" Elysia's cry came from upstairs, and they spun around in time to see Elysia slide down the banister. "Winry! Winry! Winry!" Elysia chanted as she came to hug the girl's leg.

"Hi, Elysia," Winry greeted the little girl as she glomped onto her leg.

"Dinner's almost ready. Would you care to join us?" Gracia asked Winry.

"If you don't mind," Winry said.

"Oh, dear, of course not!" Gracia replied, and went swiftly away to the kitchen to prepare for another person to dinner.

"Can I help, mommy? Can I?" Elysia asked, running after her mother.

Winry turned back to Edward, once again alone with him. She hugged him again, her arms around his neck. Ed held his arms loosely around her as she said "I just came back from being interrogated by Mustang," Ed visibly stiffened as she pulled away slightly, so she could see his face. "I was looking for you all day. I needed you, Edward. You ran off last night without any word of where you were going. I was worried,"

"Sorry," Ed said. "I just needed some time to get over what you told me. That's one heck of a load to drop on a person, Win,"

"I know," she replied. "And I'm sorry I made it sound like I was mad at _you_ for doing that to me. It wasn't you, and I know that. I think I just needed someone to feel bad about what happened, someone besides me,"

"You will almost never run out of people who feel sorry for that happening. Me, Mustang, Hawkeye, we all feel we could have done something to prevent you from getting kidnapped, so we all feel sorry," Ed replied.

"Well then, I shouldn't have been mean enough to remind you and put even more of a load on you," Winry said, smiling.

"Hey, it's in the past. We can move forward, now," Ed said. But a little spot in the back of his mind said, '_You can, but I can't. I have to give up the Philosopher's stone tomorrow at midnight, and myself along with it,_'

"Right," Winry agreed. '_Moving forward,_' she thought. '_Let's see, going back to Resembool, seeing Al, Pinako, and even Armstrong... hmmm...making Ed quit the military, marrying Ed, having sex with Ed, making tons and tons of children with Ed-_' she was suddenly aware of her last thoughts and stiffened. Now, she was aware for every movement of Ed's hands on her, every spot the touched each other, every time they brushed against each other. She blushed rather hard.

So hard, in fact, it made Ed ask, "Are you alright?"

She squeaked and pulled away from him, her arms pulling back from around his neck. '_Oh nice going, Winry,_' she scolded herself. '_Here we were, having a nice moment, and you had to go and ruin it with your perverted thoughts about Ed!_'

'_At least I'm having perverted thoughts about him again!_' she fired back at herself. '_After what Envy did to me, I was in serious doubt that I'd ever think that way about anyone ever again! This proves that I'm getting better, right?_'

"Winry?"

"Uh! Yeah! I'm just fine!" Winry said, blowing by him into the living room. "I'm gonna go help Gracia with dinner!" she laughed awkwardly and strode through the living room to the kitchen.

Edward was left staring in her wake.

* * *

TBC

* * *

Alright, so kind of a short chapter, but it had some important stuff in it to set up for the next chapter. This chapter itself was rather boring though, and I think that's why it took a long time to write.

Speaking of which, sorry about the REALLY LONG WAIT, guys. Maybe next chapter will be quicker.

REVIEW PLEASE

It's possible that I go faster when I get more reviews.

And, along with this story, I am writing my next, so that I'll be ahead of the game. I don't think I'll publish any of it until this story is over though. And with the way this is going... there's no telling when that will be.

animebookworm44


	10. Chapter 10

So here we have the new chapter of **The Birthday**!

Sorry for not updating as quickly as I would have hoped. Summer is so BUSY, huh? All those out there who are authors can testify to that, right?

Thank you for all the wonderful REVIEWS!

I promise that this chapter will be more exciting than the last one... especially since Edward gives himself up in this one... and maybe there's a little lemon scene between Ed and Winry. Not a complete lemon, mind you, I don't think I could ever bring myself to write one... not yet, at least, so it's more of a limey-lemon.

**Disclaimer:** Standard

Here we go!

* * *

Edward spent that night after Gracia's dinner thinking up his game plan. Winry lay beside him on the bed in his dorm room, sleeping contentedly and unaware that Edward was awake and watching her.

Before he handed himself over, Edward had to be sure that Winry was safe, somehow. She wouldn't be safe here in Central, no doubt, so she had to leave. Ed's mind contemplated on that. Where should he send her? How could he be sure she was safe there?

There was no real place to send Winry that was permanently away from the danger brought by the homunculi.

**Chapter 10**

He watched her as she turned over on her side, curling more into his chest. He felt his face heat up at her closeness and he could feel her soft even breathing on his chest. '_Really, watching people sleep was amazing. One may think it would get boring, but no!_' Ed thought.

He turned back to his thoughts on the safety of the girl half on top of him.

'_I could send her to Dublith. Teacher could look after her... No, that would be too much for her. Teacher is already in ill health, adding to that won't help her or me... I could send her to Xenotime with a letter for Russell and Fletcher... No, Winry is liable to fall for Russell because he's sooo tall..._' Ed thought bitterly. '_Where on earth can I send her!_'

Winry scooched in closer to him and wrapped a leg around his.

'_What the heck is she doing?_' Ed thought, that blush returning to his cheeks as he peered down at the blonde. '_So, not Dublith, not Xeno- time-..._,' he could feel her breath on his neck now, the soft blowing giving him chills. '_Uh- not- Central... erm- not Dublith. I already said not Dublith! Not- not- Xenoti- Xeno- WHAT THE HECK IS SHE DOING TO ME!_' he screamed in his head. '_Gah, I can't think now!_'

So, Edward lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, unable to think for there was a blonde girl sleeping half on top of him.

And, eventually, he slept too.

* * *

Ed awoke the next day to a sense of dread. This was the last day he would spend here, a free walking man with a State Alchemist's watch in his pocket and a Philosopher's' Stone inside him. He couldn't tell anyone anything now, for fear they would figure out what was happening and try to stop it. On top of that, he still had to figure out what to do with Winry, who was still lying on top of him asleep (and preventing any possible escape without waking her). Then, he had to figure out how to slip by the guards at the gate to Headquarters, so they couldn't tell Mustang where he was headed once Mustang found out he'd lied. Then there was the whole matter of doing the homunculi's bidding once he handed himself over to them.

He suddenly wished he'd been able to think last night, or that he'd thought to think beforehand so he wasn't stuck here now without any thoughts on these matters.

Winry groaned and arched her back, stretching, then fell back onto his chest limply. Her eyes opened groggily and she smiled.

"You're still here," she said in a sleep-husky voice.

"It's not like I could get up," he replied, pointing to her on his chest.

"Hooray for me, then," she said, placing her head back on his chest and sighing. "What's the time?"

"About noon, knowing us and our sleeping patterns," He said, his stomach knotting. '_Twelve hours left? That's it?_'

"Well you have your fancy State Alchemist watch-thingy, tell me the real time," she said.

Ed reached over to the bedside table where he had deposited his State watch and flicked open the cover. "Twelve fifteen,"

"Wow. You're good," she replied at his rather accurate guess of time.

"I've had a lot of practice with guessing the time. And speaking of time, now would be a good time to get up," he said to her, pushing her slightly to prod her to get up off of him.

"But I don't wanna," she said, hugging him tightly so he wouldn't be able to pry her off of him.

"Too bad," he said, pushing her again. "What if someone comes to see me, and sees you. This is a guy's dorm, Winry. They'll wonder what you're doing here. Some might even try to pay you for... services,"

"I never realized how totally and utterly perverted the military is," she said, pushing herself off him and looking on him disgustedly.

"You don't know the half of it," he said, sitting up and stretching.

"I certainly hope you haven't become that perverted, Edward," she said, grabbing her clothes from a duffel bag. Edward clapped his hands together and put up a screen in the middle of the room for some privacy changing. '_Although, I may not mind, if it was him,_'

"I try, but their overbearing perverted-ness, especially the god-complex-Colonel's, affects me even if I don't want it to," He said, pulling on pants and boots. "But don't worry; I haven't tried to get in with someone yet,"

"Should I be insulted?" she asked, trying to clip her bra in the back.

"What!" Ed squeaked out before he could control himself, his face turning red. He was now very thankful for the screen in the middle of the room, for it blocked his red face from Winry's sight. But then, when he looked at it, he became not-so-thankful. The light from the window was playing off Winry so he could see her shadow through the curtain, and clearly see her struggling to get the bra on. "No, no. Why would you be?" he said, eyes mesmerized as he watched her finally get the clasp to work.

'_Oh SHOOT!_' His mind screamed as he tried to pry his eyes away from the curtain.

"I'm not an idiot, Edward," she replied. "I know perfectly well that a man in a perverted state will think about any girl, no matter how repulsive, in a perverted way if his mind strays to her," she pushed down her underwear to change into a new pair, unaware that Edward could see everything she was doing because of her shadow. "So, am I supposed to take that as you don't think about me at all?"

Ed didn't register that she had asked a question for a few seconds. "Huh? Oh, no! No, I don't think about you at- I MEAN-" he cleared his throat, hoping to god that it would wake him up so he could stop looking at Winry dressing. "I don't think about you in a perverted, uh, -ish way," he quickly said.

"Perverted-ish?" Winry questioned, bending down to step into the short black skirt she usually wore on trips to Central. She turned around, as if talking to the curtain would help her glare at Edward. She was surprised, however, when she saw Edward's shadow.

Edward, who had watched her turn toward him, quickly dove for his shirt. "Yeah," he said. "I mean it would be rather horrible if you thought about your best friend in a perverted way- right?" he asked, putting the shirt on.

"Best friend, right," Winry mumbled to herself.

"And even more horrible if that certain best friend had almost been raped by a person who, at the time, looked exactly like you," Ed was just rambling now. He had no idea what he was saying. "I mean, that would almost be like a betrayal, maybe, and uh- yeah,"

By this time, Ed had gotten the shirt on, and Winry was watching his shadow sitting on his bed. It then occurred to her that if she could see Ed's shadow through the curtain, maybe he could have seen hers. She blushed lightly, quickly putting on her own shirt, the white tank-top, and sitting on the bed on her side of the curtain before bending to pull in her shoes and socks.

"I'm gonna- just- go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. You want anything?" Ed asked.

"Uh, well, maybe. I'll have whatever you get," she replied, lacing up the shoes. From behind the curtain, she caught a glimpse of Ed's back as he left the room to go get the food. She sighed once he left, and stood. Moving around to his side of the curtain, she placed a hand on her side, and sure enough saw a shadow.

'_Ed saw me changing!_' she thought. '_Well, not me exactly, but my shadow, and probably my clothes. He didn't say anything, or do anything. What does that mean? Did he want to see me change? Was that whole talk of not thinking perverted about me made up as he was thinking perversely about me? He did seem a little odd earlier, but how was I supposed to know he was watching me changing out of my pajamas! What should I do now? Confront him? Go on like I don't know? Go with it and get even more perverted later... as in... do it on purpose?_'

'_... That might work._'

* * *

Mustang called an emergency meeting of every available man currently in Central. Here they stood before him, straight as boards, while he stood up on a podium at the front, ready to make an announcement. He had already informed the higher-ups to the dire situation, and filled out the necessary paperwork (much to Hawkeye's delight) and was granted permission to do whatever he saw fit for the safety of the country.

Noticeably absent from this meeting were Edward Elric, Maria Ross, and Denny Brosh.

Edward had requested Ross and Brosh as an escort for Winry, who he was sending back home on the eight o'clock train to Resembool.

Edward himself, Mustang wanted to keep in Central where he could be watched.

Mustang cleared his throat. "Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen. I apologize for the abrupt call, however this is a matter of the utmost importance. Intelligence has been gathered by this military which is seen as a possible threat to the safety of the country and the people in it. For that reason, all of you are being shipped to a small southern town, whose name is inconsequential, and you are assigned to protect an artifact there. The intelligence gathered reports that there will be an attack and an attempt to steal this artifact, which could very well compromise this military, this country, and even this world. Your cooperation for this mission is mandatory and it is in your best interest not to ask questions about your location or the artifact. Thank you, and let's pray this intelligence is incorrect,"

Mustang stepped down from the podium and walked off the left side of the stage. Hawkeye hurriedly followed him out.

"What did you think, Lieutenant?" Mustang asked as the door closed behind him. "Was I too harsh? Think I scared them?"

"What is scary to Colonel Mustang should be scary enough for anyone, sir," Hawkeye replied. "Except, perhaps, the Fullmetal Alchemist for lack of understanding and knowledge,"

"You have a point there," Mustang said.

"I don't think the speech was grievously overstated, however I do think that you may have scared a great many of them. Especially since this speech came directly from you, and not orders from their own command chains," Hawkeye went on.

"Well I wasn't wrong," Mustang said, beginning to walk down the corridor back to his office, yet not caring for secrecy because he knew that all of the people in the building should have been out front at his speech, and should still be out there to receive their orders for boarding the train south. "If the homunculi do get their hands on the Philosopher's Stone, it could mean disaster for everyone,"

"And not even the Fullmetal Alchemist will be able to stop it,"

* * *

Ed spent the day trying to make Winry as happy as possible. He knew she would need it tomorrow, and possibly even tonight, if she got over being mad at him for sending her home. Yes, he had decided to send her back to Granny Pinako, Al, and Armstrong, with Ross and Brosh as backup and protection for her (and so he could get them out of his hair, and secure the fact that they wouldn't talk to Mustang and be able to stop him that night).

He sighed.

Winry was currently bouncing from shelf to shelf in an automail store and, although he had taken her shopping just two days ago, he was letting her buy whatever she wanted. They had already been to the park and gotten some ice cream, which Edward was still eating although Winry had finished hers some time ago.

He sighed again.

During the time Winry had been looking at automail, he had made a dash to the train station, buying three tickets for Resembool on the next train out: the eight. Ross and Brosh were supposed to meet them at the station before Winry's departure, and Ed was putting off telling her she was leaving until then. Right now, someone would be moving her things to get to the station where they would be put in cargo hold until the train arrived in Resembool, after all the train left in only two hours. He couldn't even tell how long they had been in the automail shop, but it must have been a few hours because it seemed that only twenty minutes ago, it was two o'clock. That made him sad to think that his time with Winry was almost up, however, she was happiest right now, so everything was fine.

There had, however, been a few incidents that afternoon: little slip ups of speech and other actions that could very well have been taken as something else beside innocent fun. Ed sincerely hoped that she took more notice of her actions and the things she was saying when she was out with other people, or they might think she was just horny all the time. He had a hard time believing that Winry was in complete ignorance of these actions too, but couldn't think of a reason why she would be saying these things only around him.

"Ed!"

He was forcefully snapped from his thoughts by Winry pushing him, trying to get him to look at something, but pushing so hard he almost fell over.

"Look at this screwdriver! It's amazing! The grip is so smooth, yet not so smooth that your hand slips when you're trying to screw something,"

Apparently, Winry didn't see anything wrong with that statement.

She was still smiling at him naively, holding out the screwdriver for him to see.

"What am I supposed to say to that?" he asked her.

"Say... you'll buy it for me?" she suggested.

"What happens if... I ask you how many screwdrivers like that one do you have at home?"

"Then... I hit you with my wrench until you writhe in pain under me, and then say you'll buy the screwdriver," Winry said, smiling sweetly, and not noticing how low the tank top was sitting on her chest.

'_This definitely qualifies as an 'incident_" Edward thought as he handed Winry the money for the screwdriver. '_That's another thing- why do names of power tools always have something dirty associated with them? Screwdriver, drill, screws, nuts and bolts. It's as if people try and see how many dirty things they can find names for, or how many dirty names they can attach to one thing,_'

Winry bounced off happily to go buy the item, and the bouncing did very naughty things to her skirt.

Ed slapped himself in the face once to stop himself from looking.

It didn't work too well.

* * *

Winry was suspicious when Edward asked to take the long way back to the dorms. That way was almost twice as long and would bring them through the crowded part of the downtown area. Why did he want to go that way?

They walked in silence for the most part, Edward holding the bags of things she had bought and Winry walking quietly in front of him.

But her plan had been working. Ed's face when she said the line about the screwdriver, hilarious! She smiled a little at the thought. What should she do when they got back to the dorms?

A guy, a girl, and two beds.

The possibilities are endless!

She froze as they passed the train station. Something wasn't right.

Ross and Brosh were walking toward them. The PA announced the last train for Resembool. Edward looked at the ground sadly.

"Oh, no," she said, rounding on Edward. "You are NOT doing this to me, Edward Elric! You are NOT sending me HOME!"

"Win, please-"

"Come along, Miss Winry, or you'll cause a scene," Brosh said, smiling.

"I don't care!" she shouted. "Ed, tell me you aren't forcing me to go home!"

"Dangit, Winry. I have no choice!" Ed shouted at her, passing the bags along the Ross, who took them on board the train. Brosh tried to push Winry along, but she wouldn't budge.

"Of course you do! You always have a choice! And that choice has always been to keep me out of _everything_ you do!"

"That's not true Winry, and you know it!" Ed yelled, effectively silencing her. "...Goodbye, Win," he said, turned, and left.

* * *

He took another long way home, his mind now on other things.

'_Lyra. All this time, and it was Lyra. Why the heck didn't I see that? How could I not have noticed?_' He was beating himself up over his overlook. And then he had left Rose with her, which meant that he had single-handedly given Rose to the homunculi to use as they saw fit. He was mad.

He walked by the automail shop he and Winry had been at earlier, and smiled sadly at it, still walking. Maybe she would never forgive him. Would that be better or worse? Better, he supposed, if he died at the hands of the homunculi. Worse if she forgave him and then he died. Better again if she forgave him and he lived. Worse if she didn't and he lived, for that would make his life a living hell. '_Paradoxes!_' he cursed.

The guards at the gate greeted him as he entered. He nodded curtly back, but he didn't really mean it. He was lost in thought. He walked to the dorm with his eyes on the ground, his thoughts curled into a tangled mess. He traipsed up the stairs, swaying this way and that. The dorm was completely empty and it was painfully obvious. What should have been filled with the sound of laughter and merry-making was silent. There was not a sound except for the creak of the stairs underneath his feet. He sighed heavily as he made his way down the dark hall.

The key to his room jingled in his pocket, and he was reminded that he hadn't taken his key from Winry. Oh, well. It wouldn't be of much use to her now.

The room was dark as he entered. The blinds were closed, letting in only sharp shafts of moonlight which fell on his bed in irregular patterns. He sighed again as he closed the door behind him.

He was caught off-guard, pushed roughly up against the wall by some unknown force. It bound his hands above his head so he was unable to retaliate with alchemy. In the desperate seconds that followed, Edward found that his night visitor was a living human, not a homunculus, with long hair.

And was apparently crying.

The wet drips on his chest were attributed to the soft tears streaming down the cheeks of whoever was there.

"You idiot,"

"...Winry?!"

She pushed herself off of him slightly, letting go of his hands. He wouldn't use alchemy on her now.

"What? But how? You should be on the-"

"I ditched Ross and Brosh when the train was about to leave. I told them I had to go to the bathroom and got off the train instead," she responded. "How? How could you have tried to do that to me, Edward?"

"Winry, it's not safe for you here," Edward tried to reason with her.

"And you think that Ross and Brosh would have been able to protect me? They can't go up against homunculi, Edward,"

"They were just until you got to Resembool, then Al and Major Armstrong would have-"

"Edward!" she said, pulling him to her in a fierce hug. "Do you know what I want?"

"What?" Ed asked, thoroughly confused.

"Last night, at Gracia's you said you would do anything for me,"

"Yes, but-"

"Do you know what I want you to do?"

"No, Winry! How could I know?"

She pushed him back against the wall and kissed him, hard. Ed's head hit the wall with a hard thud, and his mind was boggled for a moment. She kept on kissing him until he got the message.

He placed his hands softly on her hips and kissed her back in understanding. But that was not the reaction she wanted. She kissed him harder, making him squeeze her hips with fervor. She tugged on his jacket and he shed it without another thought, pushing himself off the wall while Winry stumbled backward with him toward the bed. She felt the edge press at her knees and fell backward onto the mattress which creaked with the sudden movement and Ed's and her weight.

She wrapped her arms around him while his tongue pushed through her lips to map her mouth. She slid her tongue over his, letting out a loud moan of approval, at which he withdrew.

"Winry," he huffed, out of breath. "We can't do this,"

"Why? A good reason Ed,"

"Winry, I-" he seriously debated telling her that he was going to give himself to the homunculi that night, and this couldn't happen. She was supposed to stay mad at him. That way, when he didn't return, she wouldn't miss him. But he WANTED to, dangit! "...Win..."

"Time's up," she said, pulling his head back down to meet her. Ed fought desperately against himself to not enjoy it, not acknowledge it, but it didn't work. He gave into the temptress.

Winry, sensing that he would cooperate now, traced her hands down his chest, and back up underneath his shirt. Ed paused for a moment at the sudden feeling before her prodding brought him back to their oral exercise.

"Edward," she moaned against his lips as they drew apart for breath. She pulled the shirt that had bunched around his armpits when she drew her hands up over his head. As soon as the piece of cloth was off of him, he descended on her again.

"Won't- someone- hear us?" Ed asked between kisses.

"There's- no one- here- Ed. Didn't- you- notice?" she replied breathily her hands slowly reaching for the bottom of her own shirt.

He pulled away from her before her hands could grasp the edge of the piece of clothing.

"I have thought of a reason!" he announced triumphantly.

Winry tossed her head back in exasperation. It had felt good! Why did he have to stop! Would he not let this go?!

"Winry, how are you ready to do this when just two days ago, you accused me of molesting you!" Ed asked.

Winry seemed to visibly relax under him. She pushed herself back out from under him, toward the head of the bed. She looked at him with sad eyes. "It's because of what happened that I want to do this with you, Edward. I don't want to have something like that happen to me again without my first time being with _you_,"

Ed didn't know what to say. She kneeled on his bed and leaned over capturing his lips gently in an alluring kiss. She pulled backward ever so slightly, so that he followed along until she was sitting straight up again, and he was leaning toward her. She broke away from him and swiftly brought the shirt up over her head. And it was at this point that Edward lost all train of thought. There was just something about breasts that did that to men.

* * *

Edward smiled sadly at the sleeping Winry while he put on and zipped his pants. She looked so peaceful there, covered in only a sheet with a definite line around her figure where the sheet stuck to her with sweat. The beams of light from the moon cascaded into the room now, as they had hit the blinds more than once during their night, and the light hit Winry in a most alluring way, making her glow softly.

This would be the way he would remember her.

"I'm sorry," he said. And walked out.

* * *

It wasn't a long trip to the river from where he was, and the bridge wasn't far from there. He made it in two minutes to midnight, and sat and resigned himself to his fate. Once he was in the homunculi's control, then he would be able to figure a way out of the situation. But he had to admit, things were looking grave.

"Edward! How nice of you to come see us,"

"Lyra," he spat. "Or Dante,"

"Either one is fine, really. Although I do thing Lyra has a nice ring, don't you?" she came up to him smiling widely. "Are you ready?" she asked.

Ed didn't answer, but stood and followed her into the night.

* * *

TBC

* * *

OOH!

I am still sorry about the updating. DARN SCHOOL!

But I would still appreciate reviews!

animebookworm44


	11. Chapter 11

Again, I have no excuse (except school) for not updating.

This is the last chapter. Sorry! But 11 is one of my lucky numbers, and I thought it fitting.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FMA

Also, do you think I should post the first chapter of my next story? I haven't really done much updating on it, though, but if you guys would like it I will. It may ot be updated for a while, because I thought that I should finish it before posting it, but I could do the first chapter because I already gave you a Sneak Peek.

Anyway, Here we go!

* * *

Winry walked solemnly down the hall of the military HQ's fourth floor toward the office of Colonel Mustang. She had two cardboard trays, each with four cups of coffee, in her hands. As she passed certain desks she would take a cup and put it down in front of the desk's occupant. They would smile sadly at her, and she would smile fakely back. This happened with Furey, Breda, Falman, Ross, Brosh, and Hawkeye every morning (Havoc didn't drink), and had been for the past six months.

She entered the office at the end of the hall, and closed the door behind her. She handed a coffee to Colonel Mustang and took the last one for herself. She seated herself in a chair opposite Mustang's desk and they both stared at each other and their coffee for a while. Hawkeye entered and sat down in the chair next to Winry, sipping her coffee. They did this as they had done every morning. Every morning after the day of Ed's disappearance.

**Chapter 11**

Ross and Brosh had come back very angry at Winry the next day, and were surprised to see her distressed state as she was crying on her way from the dorms. The three of them met with Mustang immediately and from there, the whole story unraveled. Mustang called an all-out search for the Fullmetal Alchemist, but he and the homunculi were nowhere to be found. Winry would come back every day hoping desperately to hear news. She refused to go home, so Mustang put her up in Ed's old room. She found a job at a nearby automail shop, the best in the city, and interned there. Mustang never ended his search, although the commander of each brigade gave out new assignments. Now it was only Mustang's staff who were working on the search, and only in their spare time. Alphonse had a slight breakdown when he heard the news, and Armstrong offered to stay and help Pinako with the store and Al, since Winry wasn't coming back.

Hawkeye coughed.

"Any news, sir?" she asked.

Mustang looked dimly up from his coffee, which he hadn't touched. He never did, but Winry paid for one everyday anyway.

"No news, Hawkeye," he grumbled. That said, he reached for the first in the pile of papers, and signed it, staring blankly at it.

Hawkeye stood, and after a moment, Winry did too. They exited the office together, as usual, right at 8:45.

"Good luck at work today, Winry," Hawkeye said as she stopped at her desk.

"You too, Riza" Winry replied. There was nothing new. Winry took a sip of her coffee as she left the fourth floor.

"Oh, and Happy Birthday,"

* * *

She pondered, as she always did, on her way to work. Why did he leave? Did- Does he really love me, or did he just not want to die a virgin? Did he expect to die? Has he died? I don't think I could stand it if he did. That was cruel, Ed, leaving me that way. Sometimes-- I actaully wish you impregnated me. That way the world and I would always have a piece of you, whether you die or not.

It had taken a while, but she had had to get used to the thought of Ed having died. She mentally prepared herself, but if it actually came down to it, she would still be just as devastated. She talked alot about dying inside of her head, because then she would have some comfort if the time came.

She took up all of the fifteen minutes with walking, even though the walk to the automail shop really only took five. Once outside the door, she shook herself once to rid herself of her thoughts and concentrate on automail. Then, she determinedly walked through the door.

Inside was a mess. Doctors and automail mechanics were running around like mad. The patients had retreated to the farthest wall from the operation's hall where shouts and screams of different people could be heard. Winry's mind immediately entered a state of calmness to help deal with whatever problem there was.

"He won't let anyone touch it, doctor!" one of the intern nurses said.

"I don't care, we need to get that automail off him, or he'll open all of his other wounds again and he will die!" the doctor shouted at her.

'_What is going on?_' Winry thought. She ran at once to the operation's hall. She opened the doors swiftly and with practice and set out down the hall at a fast pace.

"Winry!" her boss said. "Thank heaven you're here. We will need all the help we can get. There's a patient in 32, just recovering, will you check on him?"

"Sure, but, what is going on?" she asked.

"We just got a boy in. He has wounds all over and his automail is malfunctioning. Sparks are flying everywhere and he is convulsing. Every time someone get's near and touches his automail, his other arm comes around and hits whoever it is. And let me tell you that boy has a mean left hook,"

"So his automail is on the right arm?" Winry asked. "No, no it couldn't-"

"Yes, and he says 'Nobody touches this arm, got it?' in a rather threatening voice. But if we don't get that arm off soon, he's going to bleed out,"

"May I try?" Winry said. "If he is a boy, he may find me more persuasive,"

"Winry, experts are in trying to get it off him now. If experts can't do it- And I need you to check on that patient in 32!"

"Please! It's my birthday!" she said.

"Fine! But I will be checking up on 32, so I won't be supervising! You can't mess up, Winry!" he said, and ran off down the hall.

People ran around her as Winry tried to find the room the boy was in. "Can it be?" she said aloud, but the shouts and noise in the hall made it so that only she could have heard herself. She ran toward the place where doctors and mechanics were coming away from with bruises and broken jaws. "It certainly would be like Ed to hit them..."

She stood in front of the door, pausing for only a moment, before entering the operating room.

Sparks were flying everywhere, and interns and doctors jumped out of the way to avoid being hit by them. But Winry's eyes weren't drawn to the automail, but to the face of one Edward Elric who looked to be in a lot of pain.

"Call the military," she said to one of the interns. When the boy didn't move, she added, "NOW!"

"W-What do I tell them?"

Winry rolled her eyes at his slowness. "Call extention 1441 and ask for Colonel Mustang. Tell him the Fullmetal Alchemist is back," she said before starting to walk toward the operation table.

"Miss!" One of the doctor's called to her. She ignored him.

Another doctor ran in ahead of her and grabbed Ed's automail. He was promptly met with the best punch Winry thought Ed had ever thrown. The doctor staggered backward, and she shook her head at him.

She glided up alongside him, with all the doctor's watching, and touched him gently. As his fist came around to catch her face, she grabbed it and held it there and said.

"EDWARD ELRIC, IF YOU SO MUCH AS TOUCH ME I WILL HIT YOU WITH MY WRENCH SO HARD THAT YOU WILL WISH THE HOMUNCULI HAD KILLED YOU!"

"...Winry?" he asked in a pained voice as his hand dropped.

"That's it, Ed. Just relax," she smiled, and wiped the tears that came into her eyes. She rubbed his automail affectionately. "I think I have figured this out. When the stone's power is running low, the more metallic aspects of your arm appear. I think you are so low, that I could remove the automail and the socket, so that when a new arm grows back, it won't be metal,"

"Winry- I-"

"It's going to hurt, Ed. Before it was just metal that I could remove as I pleased. But since you tried to create an arm over the metal, there are actual nerves inside the arm. It will feel like I'm ripping your arm off,"

"It's happened- once before, right?" Ed smiled at her. She smiled back. She climbed on top of him on the operating table and stradled his waist. "Uh- Win?"

"The cleanest way to get this whole thing off is the release under your armpit. This is the easiest way to get to it. Raise your arm,"

With a grunt, Edward did so. Winry placed a hand on the release valve, and looked into Edward's golden eyes. "Ready?" she asked.

"Rea-" Winry's mouth covered his in a bruising kiss as she flicked the release. The arm and socket popped off. Edward let out a painful scream into her mouth and shot up straight. Winry rode with it, and tried to get Ed to concentrate on her kiss rather than the pain. Her arms pushed him back onto the table and held him there as her mouth clung to his for dear life. This kiss was no longer to keep Ed's mind off his pain, now it was the pent up emotion and longing for each other over the time of their separation, and their desperation to show each other how they felt. Winry broke off once she felt another little familiarity of Ed's, and she laughed. Ed slung his good arm around her waist.

"I hope you don't do this to all your patients," he chuckled.

"Only the really tall ones," she replied.

"Hey!" he said.

Just then, the door streamed open and in ran all the members of Mustang's staff. "My god, it really is him," Mustang said.

"Out! OUT!" a doctor shouted. "He needs treatment immediately! And I would advise you to clean yourself up, young lady!"

Winry looked down to find herself covered in blood, and looking a little worse for wear.

"I'll see you later," Winry said, and kissed him once again. "Just don't die on me,"

"Hey, Win," he said as she headed for the door. "Happy Birthday,"

* * *

END

* * *

I thought it was cute! Not the best ending in the world, but it was the only one I could think of. I hope I wrote it well. Yes, it is kind of short.

REVIEW!

This is the last chapter for this story, and your last chance to review! So please!

animebookworm44


	12. Author's Stuff, PLZ READ

Alright, here's the deal.

After all the lovely reviews, and going back to read the story again myself, I have decided (rather belatedly, I suppose) that the last chapter isn't good enough.

This decision did not take me long to figure out, but I was busy, what are you going to do?

So, I have decided that I will write a new one, or one**_s_**. But I need to know if people would really like that.

So, please review to this author's post.

...Although, I think I already know what the answer is...


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